The recent pit lane fire at Richmond International Raceway during a mid-race pit stop at last weekend's Xfinity Series race with Brendan Gaughan's number 62 Richard Childress Racing car sent two crew members of the RCR crew, along with one member of a neighboring team to the hospital with sever burns.
This event caused me to pause and reflect on how lucky we and the other Trans-Am teams were not having to suffer the horrific consequences of having to survive a similar event.
Unlike the NASCAR boys who wear nomex fire suits, helmets and have a battery of fire suppression equipment on hand, we were clad in only t shirts and jeans and our fire suppression consisted of a 5 lb fire extinguisher that would be challenged to control a good BBQ fire.
Back in the day we couldn't afford a fancy fueling rig like the Penske boys so our answer was a 20 gallon Nascar style refueling can wielded by 2 big burly crew members ..... Did we spill some fuel you bet your ass but compare our paltry 2 or 3 gallons to the Exxon Valdez like stops of Penske boys we were definitely minor leaguers .
Remember speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?
AL