Most liked posts in thread: Barber recap

Helpme has some valid points. I welcome constructive criticism . . . and he has some. However, he is misinformed

1) There were two (EXTRA) fire bottles on the pit cart that had zip ties on, they were NOT the pit bottles and were there as potential spares. They were zip tied for transportation. In retrospect, that is a BAD idea. It will not happen again.

2) External cutoffs are NOT required by Grand Am. They will be next year and will be incorporated as quickly as possible. However, Helpme, (who must have been there watching the situation unfold), did not really understand where the fuel was coming from. It had nothing to do with the pumps . . . had the switch been external, nothing would change. We asked the fire crewman to cut the wires to the master switch as a precaution. The switch was off but we wanted to make sure the power was truly off . . . was the switch fused by the fire?, etc. The Fireman was the guy with the face mask, fire proof coat and other gear required to enter the car. At that point the fire was definately out.

3) I wish some of the observant crews down pit lane would have said something. We DID NOT know fuel was leaking. Come on guys, we are not stupid! A problem developed with the fuel fill vent line, HIDDEN UNDER COVER, that cannot be seen. The car came to the pit earlier and we fixed what we thought was a clamp. The ultimate problem was caused by a broken exhaust header that was blowing hot exhaust, heating the fuel cell AND the fuel. The fire was caused by those heated fumes. That's why the fire would not go out. The superheated fuel was being pushed out of the cell. I say again . . . I wish someone would have said something because in the confusion of pit lane it was not seen nor understood.

We learn from our mistakes. There are some engineering and design issues that need to be addressed. There are some procedure and training issues that need to be addressed. We are dealing with them now.

 

I was just trying to make a complicated explanation simple . . .

The fuel cell is mounted below the floor about a foot behind the driver's seat. The majority of the cell is below the floor. The exhaust system flows directly out of the engine and makes a 90 degree turn to the passenger side where it ducts out in front of the tire. The actual location of the cell is why we send the exhaust out the side. There is no tunnel to send it out back.

The muffler is in front of the 90 degree turn. The muffler is re-packable. While I have not personally seen the failure, it is my understanding the pipe/muffler failed allowing the heat to flow directly toward the cell. It is still about 18" away but at speed, the air will flow straight out the back. Since the failure was after the muffler there was no obvious noise to attract our attention.

It was a 'perfect storm' of failures that allowed this whole scenario to unfold.

We have plans to change the design . . . add some heat shields, etc.

If I was starting with a clean sheet of paper, the whole design would change. The current arrangement goes all the way back to the Tony Nuzzo racing days and was the Grand Am approved design at the time. We just copied it. Four years later and thousands of racing miles later, we realize the design needs some updating.

So there it is . . . the long story for a short answer!

Randy

 

Hard to tell. The heated fuel was dumping over board . . . I assume through the discriminator valve, at least initially anyway. . . the fire source appears to just be racing fuel as nothing else would burn in that area other than some wiring and maybe a little paint.

It appears the majority of the fuel remained inside the confines of the cell or one would expect a bigger fire / an explosion / both. There also didn't appear to be any source of ignition other than the exhaust.

I do know that the fire kept re-igniting until the fire dept put water on the cell to cool it down.

Randy

 

We were thinking we had about 1/2 a tank. In reality we had a lot less. We think the fuel was being pushed out the vent.

But honestly . . . we have no idea at this point.

Randy