I'm having trouble understanding the protective clothing rules in the '06 NHRA hand book. To be honest, it's confusing the hell out of me. Just to make it easy, I'll ask the question:

What do I need in the way of protective clothing (jacket & pants or suit, gloves, ect.) If I was running 9.99-8.50 in a unaltered, full bodied car? (I understand the helmet portion.)

I keep seeing the 3.2/5 rating pop up. Which as far as I can tell would be a multi-layered piece. But I can't tell if I need gloves and the whole shot or what. I hope I'm just over analyzing this and I'm not just stupid!

Thanks for any help,

Eric

 

Gloves, neck collar, pants and jackets are required in any vehicle running 9.99 or quicker. The SFI spec 3.2A/5 tells you want layer/level you need, and any racer mail-order business or local speed shop should be able to match this up for what you need. Some regulations vary this year based on car construction and powerplant, but I think yours should stay 3.2/5 regulation.

Derek

 

right from the '06 rulebook, 9.99 to 7.50 or any vehicle exceeding 135mph: Jacket and pants meeting SFI spec 3.2A/5 and gloves meeting SFI spec 3.3/1 mandatory.

3.3/1 is only single layer gloves, 3.3/5 is multi layer gloves. 3.2A/5 is multi layer jacket and pants. 3.2A/1 is single layer for pants/jacket/suit.

Neck collar is not required for Super Pro, Pro and sportsman to 7.50, at least in my rulebook. That chart on NHRA.com and in back of the rulebook is just a quick guide, they have 7.50-9.99 all lumped together there. But in some other classes there are slower then 7.50 cars requiring one. A collar is cheap and not a bad thing to have really though. I highly suggest if you have any safety questions to call your division tech director and ask.

 

Multi-layer jacket & pants, neck collar and single layer gloves.

 

Summit tech guys also have been a help to me before on this too.