Topic: Seat back brace for FIA-certified composite seat?

Been going round and round with looking at the tech sheet and our seat certification, but I'm a bit confused. We have EVERYTHING else completed to pass tech, but this one area is causing me heartburn. If someone can elaborate, I would be very grateful.

Driver’s Seat: One-piece racing seat; solid to car; seatback correctly restrained or braced

Since we are funning an OMP composite seat, do we NEED to have a seat back brace installed? The seat will be around 6" from the harness bar, however I have seen other vehicles that when the seat is forward, a brace extends and sits an inch or two behind the seat. Is this additional brace mandatory to pass tech, or only needed "at a teams' discretion"?

Thanks in advance, hope to see some of y'all at CMP in a week!

Jeremy
Racecar: '93 Mustang GT, stock, Lemons prepped, PITA - https://www.facebook.com/PrincessButtercupRacing, Soon-To-Be Racecar: '95 318ti
DD: '21 Jeep Wrangler
Fun vehicle: '13 Triumph Rocket 3 Roadster

2 (edited by BigBird 2023-04-13 08:51 AM)

Re: Seat back brace for FIA-certified composite seat?

Send this question to John L. Pagel,head of tech inspection.E mail is best...pagel@24hoursoflemons.com                                         His opinion/answer is the only one that matters. He's really good at getting you answers...

45+x Loser.....You'd think I would learn......
5x I.O.E  Winner   1 Heroic Fix Winner   1 Org Choice Winner
2x  I Got Screwed Winner    2x Class C Winner
(Still a Class B driver in a Class A car)

Re: Seat back brace for FIA-certified composite seat?

Don't have any more heartburn, you are overthinking it. Rules say harness bar is within 6" of back of seat, but if you are about 6" from the harness bar you really should get a seat back brace.  Buy one online or make your own.  Mine is a 1" x 1.5' round tube welded to some 1" square stock.  The square stock goes into a larger square stock that is welded to the harness bar.  Holes are drilled in both and held together with a quick release pin.  At driver changes we readjust the bar and pin so that seat back brace is touching the seat.

There are plenty on Summit, Pegasus, etc. that you can buy and attach to your harness bar. 

Good luck.

Team whatever_racecar #745 Volvo wagon

Re: Seat back brace for FIA-certified composite seat?

We run a fixed seat on both cars with a driver range of 5'7" to 6'2". We set the seat to our driver that's about 5'11" and the tallest person is marginally uncomfortable, and the shortest person gets a seat insert and is also marginally uncomfortable. Nobody on our team has complained and fixed mounting is so much easier, safer, and is one less thing to deal with during driver changes. Both cars have the harness bar within 6"... I wouldn't overthink it too much.

If you decide to make or install a back brace, make sure that you do your research and do everything correctly. An undersized or poorly positioned back brace can very easily become a pressure point and cause more harm than good.

Full Ass Racing
#455 Piñata Miata - 1990 Miata
#735 BMDollhÜr 7Turdy5i - 1990 735i

Re: Seat back brace for FIA-certified composite seat?

Thanks all, I appreciate the input! I emailed John and we chatted a bit: my suspicion was confirmed. Unfortunately, we need to have the seat adjustable, and our shortest driver will need the brace (the other 2 drivers will likely not). That being said, since the brace is not physically attached to the seat, are there any off-the-shelf braces that y'all can recommend? I was looking at the Competition Engineering C4905 Seat Back Brace (for 1.75" bars), but it appears to have an added pivot point to attach to the seat (And we will NOT be drilling holes into our OMP composite seat). Will that pass tech still?

Thanks in advance...sorry for the redundancy. :-P

Jeremy
Racecar: '93 Mustang GT, stock, Lemons prepped, PITA - https://www.facebook.com/PrincessButtercupRacing, Soon-To-Be Racecar: '95 318ti
DD: '21 Jeep Wrangler
Fun vehicle: '13 Triumph Rocket 3 Roadster

Re: Seat back brace for FIA-certified composite seat?

Spoke to John....getting his brace (may the tech gods smile on us). Thanks all!!!

Jeremy
Racecar: '93 Mustang GT, stock, Lemons prepped, PITA - https://www.facebook.com/PrincessButtercupRacing, Soon-To-Be Racecar: '95 318ti
DD: '21 Jeep Wrangler
Fun vehicle: '13 Triumph Rocket 3 Roadster

Re: Seat back brace for FIA-certified composite seat?

RandomSquirrel wrote:

Spoke to John....getting his brace (may the tech gods smile on us). Thanks all!!!

Glad you got it sorted and no need to apologize.  I think you will find the Lemons crowd is generally very helpful and we want you to get out on track and have fun.

Team whatever_racecar #745 Volvo wagon

Re: Seat back brace for FIA-certified composite seat?

rb92673 wrote:
RandomSquirrel wrote:

Spoke to John....getting his brace (may the tech gods smile on us). Thanks all!!!

Glad you got it sorted and no need to apologize.  I think you will find the Lemons crowd is generally very helpful and we want you to get out on track and have fun.

Amen to that!

We were looking to do the Pitt Maneuver event for our first one, however one of our team members has a LOT of friends/current teams racing at the CMP event on April 22-23, so we're making that our first event. Already had an outpouring of assistance and input from friend, so really looking forward to getting on track (again)!

1) Keep ourselves safe,
2) Keep others safe.
3) Keep the car together to the end.
4) Finish.

Jeremy
Racecar: '93 Mustang GT, stock, Lemons prepped, PITA - https://www.facebook.com/PrincessButtercupRacing, Soon-To-Be Racecar: '95 318ti
DD: '21 Jeep Wrangler
Fun vehicle: '13 Triumph Rocket 3 Roadster