Racing Harness

Joe Marko was our guest from HMS Motorsport joins us to discuss several of the key aspects of safety for your race car, key aspects to take into consideration, as well as installation guidance, basically a one stop shop, but it was so much content and information, we are sure this is only part one of several more.  If you are going to be working on your car or especially if you are building a car this winter, this can help you significantly.

On this episode’s Dominating with Dawson, we cover what to do and what to avoid when steering the car on track.  Also a few tips that have seemed to help Vicki and Jennifer break their former shuffle steering habit.  And Ben balances eggs on his hood? 

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and

Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  A history of Joe and his team at HMS Motorsports, as well as how they have focused on safety for motorsports cars and drivers for the past 25 years, including all levels from amateur racing through NASCAR.

2)  We finally know how to pronounce Schroth properly.

3)  How HMS began working with NASCAR after the Dale Earnhardt accident at Daytona and how the relationship has grown in the intervening time to where almost every driver is using belts from HMS.

4)  We cover what is a DOT or street legal seat belt or harness vs only for track use.

5)  How your harness belts, shoulders, lap, and crotch belts should be installed to maximize safety and prevent submarining in an accident.  And more importantly why.

6)  What are the differences between SFI and FIA rated harnesses and how that came to be.

7)  What is the difference between and 5-point belt and a 6-point belt and why one is usually better than the other? 

8)  We go into the ideal mounting geometry and the geometry of where the belts should be on the driver.  Joe also gives an ingenious, yet simple solution for drivers of different sizes requiring different length belts.  We know, we did tell you there would be no math, lol.

9)  Why you may want to get the enduro style belts?  They are a bit more expensive but offer significant advantages, especially when fitting drivers of several sizes, like in endurance racing events or shared cars at HPDE and track day events.

10)  Seat mounting and harness mounting guidance that may save you when you most need it.  We also go into how to properly design a seat back brace and perhaps most importantly the shape of the brace interface with the seat.

11)  Halo seat designs and considerations, as well as advantages and disadvantages.  Interior nets can be a close approximation of a halo seat when installed properly.

12)  Webster’s dictionary has not gotten back to us for our proposed entry of “luxury mammals” that we first heard from prior podcast guest Randy Bish when i-racing.  We will keep everyone updated with our progress.

13)  Joe also helps us to explore several potential options for fitting drivers of different size into a single seat in our endurance cars.  Our winter to do list is growing.

14)  The importance of how you mount and align your seat as well as the interaction this has with the belt/harness system effectiveness.

15)  What the new Snell 2020 helmet certifications mean and how they may affect your current helmet if it certified to 2010 or prior.  Joe also explains why there is a time limit of a helmet and under what circumstances you should replace your helmet even if it has not expired.

16)  We even go into how to care for and clean your helmet from track use or in case of more extreme events after one too many “thin mints”.  This question is for you Bruce.

17)  A helmet dryer is not the same as when you use a blow dryer, which can damage a helmet.

18)  How to mount your radio wiring or camel back type straws and how not to.  Hint:  hole drilling is bad.

19)  Joe also presented several options to help keep your visor and/or eyeglasses from fogging.  Bill is actively looking for pin lock visors as we speak.

As a bonus, we have an extensive post credit bonus discussion of Jennifer’s recent accident at the Charlotte Roval, what happened, and several alternative safety improvements that may have reduced the damage to our driver.  

Links to several of the items discussed:

Custom Seat Insert System:  https://www.hmsmotorsport.com/item/bsci-foam-seat-pouring-kit

Schroth Bead seat inserts:  https://www.hmsmotorsport.com/item/schroth-profi-seat-kit/seat-fitment

HMS Motorsport’s YouTube Videos:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz0etXlIQnDtbfHzCtGwduQ

GHIT 0149: Joe Marko from HMS Motorsport Discusses Safety Equipment, including Seats and Racing Harnesses