Get Well Soon Garrett.

By far the most violent wreck I've seen in our short time in Mini Sprints. The 61 got tangled up with another car on the track and spun to the inside of the entry to turn 3 and then the 91 and 17 got together and into the fence right in front of the stands in the pit area.

What is left of the 91 car is scary to look at, the chassis tubes are ripped apart in several places, the rear of the cage is pushed forward which pushed the seat forward,..... Garrett's helmet is cracked and also has a puncture where it looks like the wing tree may have been stuffed through the outer shell of the helmet.

Brandon (#17) flipped several times and landed between the concrete wall and the billboard signs in turn 3. His car has some chassis damage along with a bunch of broken bolt on parts.

The GOOD news is both drivers are OK! (I'm sure they're sore today!)

It was scary stuff. I guess they were just trying to do their part on Halloween night.

Does either club test to see if cars meet their min. tube thickness ???

  There is not a thickness test, but it states in the rules the size of tubeing the chassis should be built with per engine size.  It is generally trusted in the car builder to use the proper chromolly per size which has a standard thickness. The issue is not enough support to the rollcage of this older design Hyper during a crash at these speeds as we found.

You have a point, I have heard of oh too thin wall. 4130 chromolly has different thicknesses, It should be 1/8", im not sure.

So...... non downtube cars are as safe as downtube cars ???   Yea....your right...LOL

Speaking as a person who's built cars for all manners of motor sports for 30+ years, you must have no concept of structural engineering. Think about it..

I think the safety point here is that the speeds these cars run at Tucson are way to fast for these cars, it doesn't matter with either type of car, downtube or mid-rail chassis. Hypers chassis tubes are the largest diameter chrom-moly out there at 1.375.  None of these cars are  designed to take a lick like that with the concrete barrier at over 100 mph and survive, we are very lucky the drivers involved were not seriously injured in this accident, When roll cage tubes snap and break in the middle of a section of tube ,not near a weld or bend,you have exceeded the structural integrity of the materials these cars are all built with.. We need to look at just how fast is too fast, and the reality of safer speed limits for these cars before someone gets seriously injured.  

It is .083 and with the larger dia. of 1.375  that makes it very tough, alot tougher than 1.25 of the same thickness.

Terry, are you going to tell me that cage wouldnt be stronger with  downtubes on it???? 

I'm not saying its "unsafe", I am saying its not "as" safe or strong as a downtube design.

Kevin, Justin was in a Hyper. I agree....nothing is fullproof. If man can make it, man can break it

The amma specs for chassis are the same as the usac midget's.   And in my hyper the sizes of radius rods and bearing are similar to the midgets also

   I spoke to Pace Chassis and they use all .065 wall on the whole chassis. With a wider taller more modern design they haven't had any rollcage issues running on 1/5 to 1/8 mile tracks. The Pace rep. said we go about twice as fast in Tucson as they do in Cali.

Racinround. If you have been around motorsports for 30+ years, surely my dad knows you. What's your name?

I find it kinda funny  that (im guilty as well) the only 2 people that really have a say so haven't or dont respond to this. Bandon and Garrett. Glad they are both o.k.