Bellemeur bounces back from scary ride

Most racers take safety seriously, especially after some of the recent events in drag racing. I don't know of anyone who takes safety more seriously than Sean does - he's the reason I now use liners in addition to my Ringers gloves from DT. You just don't know when something bad is going to happen, so always be prepared. My trip into the catch net at the Seattle divisional was a combination of bad luck and me growing a little complacent about throwing both chutes. It shouldn't have happened, but it did. If Sean had a seat belt problem, it could happen to you, too.

 

Sean's deal reminds me of Tony Pedregon's similar incident a few years ago while still driving for Force. His arm retstraint got caught in the cam release of the belts as he went for the chutes. The belts released as the chutes were hitting and put him up in the dash of the car. Bent the hell out of the steering wheel but he manged to get the car stopped. Scary deal

 

Sean told me what had happened Sunday morning in the pits, he is lucky thats all he got was a bruise. Things could go from bad to worse in a hell of a hurry, its a good thing his natural driving ability and cool head helped him through that situation. This is going to change how I do up my drivers belts and also change the strap from the buckle to the chin strap as it runs past the release knob given the right circumstances I suppose it could twist and disengage the belts from the lock.

plmsII

 

Before I go into the nuts and bolts of what happened I wanted to say this...
The belts in the Renegade Racing/Synoil TAFC are built by Dennis Taylor who is a manufacturer, competitor and friend. I FULLY trust any part that he makes to keeps the drivers safe, and he proves his work by trusting his own life with his equipment in his funny car. That being said, Dennis has been in contact with me a lot about what could have happened and things to look for to prevent a potential problem in the future. I also want to say that I fully trust the equipment in the car that I drive, and I know that my team owner Geoff Goodwin put me in the car the same way that he has done hundreds of times for his drivers. I don't want to speculate on anything until Dennis has looked at the locking mechanism and belts himself, and we are working together to come up with an answer. I used the same belts and locking mechanism again the very next run just a couple hours later and the belts did their job as they are supposed to. This is the first time in my 9 year driving career that anything like this has happened, and I really appreciate Dennis' concern and the help that everyone at Taylor Motorsports Products has given to ensure that this never happens to myself or any other driver out there.
As Russ said, because of my background with working safety, and SFI, I take every precaution availible to keep us safe, and I completely trust Dennis and his equipment. I would never think twice about putting ANY of his equipment on a car that I drive.
I thank everyone for their concern. Race safe everyone!

 

I got to speak with Sean after I heard about this deal, I just wanted to get an idea of what may have happened to make sure I do whatever is needed to try to not have it happen to me. Sean told me pretty much what has been stated here and I also know how Sean is about safety, he has gotten me to be more picky about equipment and how the car is set up... Hell Sean let me use his HANS to get used to wearing one. The real point is anything can happen, we all need to be prepared for the unusual and all of us as drivers need to do all we can with safety cause at the end it is our butts on the line...