Slide22:
In my 37 years of attending races in one form or another...watching multiple sanctioning bodies such as NAMARS, USAC, ASCoC, WoO, SOD, etc. as well as non sanctioned races, on dirt and pavement, with and without a wing, in 4 different states....You could say I have seen more than a few flips/crashes- barrel rolls, end over ends, multi car flips, grinding mulitple car pile ups, 'out of the ball park' flips and so on....
and not to attack you, but I know full well that in a crash/flip, the wing will absorb some of the energy by collapsing, and thus slow the crash down/soften the crash some.
I also know that a wing helps plant the car on the ground...and it also can make a so-so driver look better while it acts like a rudder on top of the car. I also know that the wing creates a lot of drag on the engine.
However, you should know that there are times that the wing is torn off early in a crash/flip.......ripped off by the fence, by a passing car, the first impact with the ground, or the front mounts break and the wing flops backwards and isn't over top of the cage to soften any ensuing impacts.
What happens then???
Check out this clip from Knoxville...(I was there for the then 'Super Modified Nationals' in 1975)
http://www.youtube.c...feature=related what happened to both of their top wings??...yep, ripped off, and the cars continued to flip. During those flips, the wing wasn't there to do anything!
So, like I said "It is not (and never has been), a guarantee that the top wing will stay on the car in a flip......so if the chassis' are not safe , they are not safe....wing or not. "
Edited by Need for Speed, 23 June 2009 - 06:28 PM.