Indy steps up 'SAFER' evaluation
Indianapolis Motor Speedway director of engineering Kevin Forbes has welcomed the installation of 'SAFER' barrier systems at other US ovals, in view of the variety of racecars (F1, IndyCars and Winston Cup stock cars) that race at IMS. "We can now gather even more data, and it will be a more universal effort in development of future 'SAFER' barriers," Forbes said. No F1 car has yet made contact with the barrier, which is in Turn 13 of the Speedway's 2.606-mile road course
Talladega Superspeedway has recently installed the Steel and Foam Energy Reduction barrier on its inside retaining wall in Turn 2, and Richmond International Raceway is to fit the system all round its 0.75-mile oval.
"This can obviously benefit not only the Indianapolis Motor Speedway but the entire motorsport world," Forbes said. "We continue to get more data and a feel for the type of impacts that occur with 'SAFER' with the wide variety of racing we have at Indianapolis."
There have been more than 15 impacts into the 'SAFER' barrier by IndyCars and NASCAR stock cars during testing, practice, qualifying and race sessions at IMS.
"Compared with similar impacts prior to 'SAFER' being installed, damage and injury appears to have been drastically reduced," Forbes said. "Despite that, IMS and IRL officials, working with NASCAR, continue to try and improve the barrier through test crashes at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility in Nebraska and analysis of all crash data."
The 'SAFER' barrier is constructed in 20ft modules, each module consisting of four rectangular steel tubes, welded together to form a unified element. The modules are connected with four internal steel splices. Bundles of 2in thick sheets of extruded, closed-cell polystyrene are placed between the concrete wall and the steel tubing modules.
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