A Safety Gear Excursion

A little rain didn't slow down Team Coronautski at AMP!

Today most of the Lemons team took a trip out to Atlanta Motorsports Park to find the home of Discovery Parts to get fitted for all the safety gear we need for the race.

Pretty impressive collection of gear at Discovery.

Even though the cars in Lemons may be rust buckets and absolute junk, safety is still a priority.  Most of us are just starting to get into real track time and needed most of the gear, so here's some of the stuff we bought.

Lots of suits to choose from here.

The most obvious is a racing suit.  Most are made of Nomex or another aramid (fire retardant) material). Suits come in a large range of safety ratings, and different features and styles.  After trying a few of the mid-entry level range on, most of us settled on different styles of the Alpine Stars brand. Finding a good, comfortable fit while sitting in a race-seat position is key here.

With the help of Discovery's pros, Team Coronautski evaluates some new kicks.

Up next we tried a number of gloves and shoes on. Pretty straight-forward here.  Again we looked for comfort and fit in an acceptable price range. All of these come with fire-resistant materials and ratings that will be required for the race.

Head And Neck Safety device signed by the Talladega Nights cast.

We all have helmets, but I still needed a head and neck restraint system.  Every major racing series now requires these devices that work by tethering the back of the helmet to a collar of some sort that helps distribute forces in the event of a crash to significantly reduce neck and head injuries mostly caused by whip-lash. Pretty important stuff. Discovery even has a Hans brand device signed by the cast of Talladega Nights.

Balaclavas...do not taste as good as baklava.

We picked up a few other fire-resistant accessories like socks, underwear, and under shirts to fully round-out the equipment.  Now that the team is looking the part and much safer, now we just need to knock out a few more work days to wrap up the car and practice our pit stops and emergency escapes.

Helmet, Suit, Shoes, Gloves, Hans, Balaclava, Nomex shirt, and Nomex socks all keeping me safe.