Camlock Issues

In summary:

(Relatively) New-to-driver car caught on fire while on the track, driver gets it to the nearest corner station and starts to bail out but all the belts don't release from the camlock. In the smoke (and with his helmet still on) it takes time for him to realize what's going on and finally release all the belts. Ends up okay, but could have been a major moment for all concerned.

Besides reminding people of the need to practice getting out of the car in a hurry with helmet and HANS in place, he's also now a proponent for the old latch-type connector.
 
I for one am not a fan of the camlock belts. I was helping a friend get buckled in for a race a while back and he had latched his belts into the camlock...or so he thought. As he jostled around getting situated one of the belts slowly worked it's way out of the camlock. It had never been correctly latched in but you really couldn't tell until it fell out. By the time I saw it he had his helmet on and may not of noticed it.

For myself it's latch and link all the way.
 
They can both be problematical. I had the detent ball on my latch & link seize which required the leverage of a screw driver to unhook.

A spritz of Kroil fixed it permanently, but it was upsetting.
 
I had a latch-link that would unbuckle itself when I breathed. Scared the hell out of myself going into 5 at Road America on lap 1 without a harness on...:o
 
Back in the day I had some Simpson camlocks in a street car once and I was not a big fan of them as it always seemed like an awkward way to release a belt. The "whatever? locks" on my G-Force belts release in both directions, will spring back to the "latch" position with the slightest touch and have a positive "click" when each belt is inserted.

$.02
 
I think the lesson here is, as stated above, practice a quick exit from your race car with all of your safety gear on. Practice going out the driver's window and the passenger window. Practice exitting the car with your eyes closed. Practice exitting the car with one hand.

Another lesson is that safety equipment needs attention and maintenance just like any other part on the race car.
 
JC, i doubt you remember me, but we ran a school at sows together. you hd an srf, i had a pro7 03/04 ish.

anyway, i've only run camlocks. take care to get buckled in and there have been zero issues in ~200 track hours. over 100 of those in enduros with live pit stops. latch and link? bleep that in an endurance race; i don't race sprints and don't ssee the need to change my safety gear.

marcus
 
planet6racing said:
I had a latch-link that would unbuckle itself when I breathed. Scared the hell out of myself going into 5 at Road America on lap 1 without a harness on...:o
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I had a camlock set that would eject the right side shoulder harness at the end of the backstraight at Road Atlanta. The first time I blamed it on driver error. After the second time I switched manufactirers to a latch link set. The jury is still out on the latch link set.
 
My teammate had a scary moment last race weekend where his camlocks (GForce I think) popped loose while going to the grid (think it was the shoulder belt), but that was the one and only time. Did rattle him, though!

I've only ever used the latch-n-link style, but may likely switch to a camlock for my wife - she has a rough time with the big latch buckle digging into her thighs, quite uncomfortable.
 
JC, i doubt you remember me, but we ran a school at sows together. you hd an srf, i had a pro7 03/04 ish.
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Yup, that was the school where I ran the SRF with a couple FFs and a FV. You were in the crazy sedan group that repeatedly tried to wreck itself. Luckily I don't think a wreck actually happened. Glad to see you survived.
 
betamotorsports said:
I think the lesson here is, as stated above, practice a quick exit from your race car with all of your safety gear on. Practice going out the driver's window and the passenger window. Practice exitting the car with your eyes closed. Practice exitting the car with one hand.

Another lesson is that safety equipment needs attention and maintenance just like any other part on the race car.
Click to expand...


But use an old helmet so you dont scratch up a nice new one ;)
 
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