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An example of how well race track catch fences are designed


Zathrus~SPARTA~
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Hello all,

Well last night (7-5-15) the NASCAR race ended with a bang.

I typically only watch the beginning and the end of these races.

Last night, on the last lap, as the winner (Dale E. Jr.) crossed the finish line, total mayhem broke out behind him.

 

The fact that this car which weighs 3500 pounds, going 196 mph at the time of the accident, did not get into the crowd is amazing.

The car did barrel roll into the fence well off the ground.

In fact, as far as I know, no fans were injured at all in this wreck, which separated the car into 3 pieces, plus the engine and transmission ended up by themselves on the track also.

Of course the chrome moly cage protected the driver.

 

But these catch fences are amazing at the super speedways.

 

 

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well... those are only one piece of it. Super speedway catch fences contain about

6 different interlocking systems within the fence. The cables hold it together and help absorb some impact.

But most of the impact is actually absorbed by the posts. Although I have not found the actual specifications

I am fairly certain the posts and associated mounting hardware are super alloys designed for high strength.

At least at the mounting section of each post that would be true.

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The Hans device is a pretty cool piece of safety kit it as well it pretty much saved my cousin Steves life at the Rockingham oval the guy that invented it should be Knighted

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yes the Hans device is one of the reasons Dillon walked away from that crash.

 

BTW, that fence absorbed a tremendous amount of energy since a Nascar car going 180mph has the kinetic energy of 4,782,648 Joules.

This car on Sunday was going 196 mph so it was slightly more energy.

A Nascar Sprint cup car weighs 1477Kg so it is significant mass.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Amazing footage, hard to believe he walked away from that!

 

You are right about the fence, amazing design and construction. It has to be able to flex and give to reduce injury to driver, but retain it's strength to prevent failure with risk to the crowd behind, very clever.

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