Sunday, September 20, 2009

Suiting Up For The Race Of Your Life

By Byron Jonas

When it comes to sports, there are a number of dangers that are associated with each one independently.

Some sports injuries seem rather small and minute, such as spraining and ankle or twisting a knee. Sure these things can knock a player out of a competition or tournament, but they are not all that serious in the grand scheme of things. Other sports, however, can leave you with broken bones, concussions, and maybe worse, disfigured and paralyzed for the rest of your life. While this list of injuries may seem sensationalized, there are popular sports in which these are realistic and common side effects.

Car racing is one of those sports that has a more serious and more dangerous side to it than many others.

Therefore, if you are somebody who participates in car racing on a regular basis, you must first learn and understand the safety measures that are essential toward being a healthy and successful driver. There are dozens of pieces of safety equipment that are created and designed to help keep drivers safe, and being familiar with them is an important part of becoming a racecar driver.

The first thing you must make clear is what type of racing you usually compete in. There are different items for different people, and different items for different types of racing. To ensure that you are taking the best possible care of yourself when it comes time to race, you must make sure you are shopping in the right aisle: the auto racing aisle, or the kart racing aisle.

If you are an auto racer, your suit must protect you from the most common and serious dangers present on every racetrack during every race. When it comes to auto racing, that danger is undoubtedly fire. While driving around at such high speeds, accidents happen. Whether or not it was your fault is unimportant - once you hit into another car or the wall, all that matters is that you emerge from the crash in one piece. While fires do not break out spontaneously in most situations, a crash or an accident can spark a fire within your racecar. Seeing as you are strapped and harnessed into your car, you might be exposed to the intense, flaming heat for an extended period of time as you try and jostle loose from the pilot's seat. As a result, the suit that you wear as an auto racer must be designed to withstand such powerful heat. As a result, if you are an auto racer who is looking for a new suit, make sure the one you have your eye on is fully and completely fire resistant - just in case.

If you are a kart racer, however, your needs are different. The biggest problem for kart racers comes when they are thrown from their vehicle and are sent sliding across the burning hot asphalt or pavement racetrack. Therefore, while fire is the biggest concern for an auto racer, being able to withstand the damage done to a person when they are tossed around on the concrete floor matters most to a kart racer. As a result, a kart racing suit must be designed to absorb that type of shock and keep the racer in one piece after the accident has cleared.

When the dust settles, all that truly matters when it comes to racing is that you enjoy doing it and that you do it safely. With the right racing suit, you can be sure that you are doing your best to protect yourself against the very real dangers that exist out on those racetracks.

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