Tim Richmond is my all-time fave racer. Nobody could race a loose car like him, just smokin' the right rear tire! He was the very fastest there was during his time. He went to stock cars after his Dad told him he was going to get killed in open wheelers. He was fast there too. He owned Pocono. He owned the road courses. He owned all the talent there was. #25 Folgers forever
I raced Modifieds at Bridgeport in the 80's & 90's and it is a scary fast 5/8 mile track. Danny Lasosky's time trial lap last night was 16.46 sec. 136.66 MPH
Yup he was a local from Long Beach. Oddly I worked with Ultra Motorsports and left a few seasons before he started driving for them. Then went on to work at a team that eventually aquired a few of the Ultra/Leffler #7 Sirius cars. No real connection but kind of a small world.
Just watched a short video of wing cars at that track, man that is a big place. They quit running at Syracuse because they were going too fast, I think the same holds true for Bridgeport, it looks like they are just going too fast.
I love watching those winged sprint cars, but they are capable of amazing speeds and horrific looking crashes. My condolences to his family and friends, by all accounts Jason was a class act.
Did you ever race at Flemington?That was a cool place I visited several times when it was dirt.Another scary 5/8ths.
Flemington was where I started driving as a teen in the late 70's, it's also the only track at which I got upside down. A very fast and unforgiving track it was. I was there for the ISMA Supermodified race the first year that it was paved, they were scary fast.
You have to wear arm restraints in NJ. The Delaware County, PA coroner reported the cause of death as a blunt force neck injury. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2013/06/13/jason-leffler-cause-of-death-nascar/2421945/
Actually window nets are there to keep the drivers arms inside the cage. Nascar mandated them in 1970 after Richard Petty's arm was injured in a flip.
Sprints and midgets, at least when I was driving, required arm restraints, a "Head net" on the right side of the cage to keep your head from getting outside the cage, and a screen to keep objects from hitting you in the face. I don't remember the drivers name but a guy got a dried mud ball in the face at Perris 10 or 12 years ago, crushed his face pretty bad. I believe the Head net was conceived after Rich Vogler was killed when he slapped the wall with the right side of the car and his head stretched outside the cage. It wasn't a super violent hit, but he got far enough out that he hit his head on the wall or a pole or something. The reality is the cages are so small it doesn't take much to get outside when you crash, the body can stretch incredibly when forced to do so. One night at Ventura (sprint cars) my buddy crashed on the front straight and got his bell rung pretty good. Someone had video of it, and when we watched it, after a couple of flips and rolls the car came down hard and flat on the left side. You could clearly see him stretch and his head impacted the dirt.
As far as I remember arm restraints in cars that don't use window nets have been required by New Jersey State rules since at least 1979 when I started driving. The NJ State Police have a Motor Vehicle Racing Control Unit that mandates and inspects safety rules at the tracks. There was always a trooper in the pits, when entering the track you would have to hold your arms in the air so that the inspector could see gloves and restraints, if you weren't wearing them they would not let you out.
