Topic: Fire safety. A discussion. Not a witch hunt. Thompson 18
We all know the rules when it comes to fueling right? Some tracks may be different than others when it comes to where you can fuel, but not how you fuel. While I was not wearing a staff shirt at Thompson, the paddock layout and car count meant that my help was (maybe) useful. I wasn't racing, or hired to cook, so there was plenty of time to police the naughty speeders and what not.
During the race, an unnamed car came off track dragging something. I followed them to their paddock, and on my way there found a team fueling their car, without safety gear, in their paddock. Stopped them. Sent them to the judges, and continued onward to car dragging parts. No big deal.
A few hours later I found a friend, who just so happened to be paddocked right across from the earlier fueling violator, transferring fuel from a drum into dump cans. Wasn't in full gear, didnt have a fire extinguisher handy, or a second person to assist. Wasnt breaking any rules, and wasn't dumping gas all over, so after he was done, we talked. Pointing out how while he wasn't actually breaking the rules, it wasn't terribly safe either. He was done fuel transferring for the day, but agreed it could be done better.
Shortly after that discussion, I rolled through the paddock to find people who were new, in full gear, trying to find their gas can and setup to fuel in the paddock. Gas cap was still on. Car had been parked for a while since they didnt exactly have their shit together earlier, so we had a chat. The teammates present were not aware they weren't allowed to fuel in the paddock during race hours, and assumed that "full gear/fire bottle/etc" was adequate. They self punished, and we had a nice long chat about rules and fire and not being dead. Relatively new team. Not trying to pull a fast one, and were trying to be safe but definitely breaking the rules (hotpits or with the track fuel pump)
So my rambling aside, what do we take from this? It doesnt seem "we need more rules" or even "we need to better discuss the rules" because someone will skip the driver meeting, or ignore the rules to save pit times, or do something that is to the letter, within the rules, but still dangerous.
All of these things happened within a few paddock spaces of each other, and I won't sit on my little grom and pretend like I am without sin. I'm as guilty as any of the above in my younger stupider days, but can we do better and if so, how?