We are at the end of another great season of racing. Final races have been run and champions have been crowned. Congratulations to all!

This has also been a great year for the advancement of safety. Recently, a quick review of some of the testing done a few years ago, has brought to light just how far we have come in a few short years. The amount of dynamic testing for race car safety devices has increased dramatically in the past 7 years. This also means that the amount of learning has been increasing steadily in the same period. Safety Solutions has been at the fore-front of all of it. With the most dynamic testing of any racing safety manufacturer, we have the most experienced-based knowledge pertaining to occupant safety systems.

Our product line offers two of the best head and neck restraints in the world, showing our commitment to driver safety, a commitment that we live by. The addition of the patented Seat belt Anchoring System (SAS) and the patent pending Side Stabilizing Gusset (SSG) to the side of the Hybrid X has led the way for our next generation of head and neck restraints. The SSG system is now standard equipment on all of our Hybrid models, the helmet tethers are now in a triangular arrangement leading up to the helmet. What this means for the driver is an incredible amount of head stability without compromising side-to-side head motion. For maximum Side-to-Side vision, go with the"

The individual product options now available are great, but what really makes a difference is the amount all of the updates and advances which have been blended together to make the wearer even more safe, as we have with our products. With its updates and advancements, the Hybrid head and neck restraints series has broken new ground with respect to lowering neck tension in both frontal impacts and angular impacts. Just a year ago, the best performance from a HANS device in a straight frontal 70 G impact was 210 lbf for Neck Tension. While this value has stayed the same, the Hybrid series parts have tested routinely at 69 to 144 lbf Neck Tension in the Straight Frontals. In a 30 Degree Frontal impact the competitor’s product sores to 494 lbf., while the Hybrid's Neck Tension comes in at a mere 22 lbf, and the Hybrid Pro closely following at 105 lbf. What a difference from just a few years ago.

What is interesting about these numbers is that I was recently reviewing an SAE paper that I worked on with GM Motorsports a few years ago and realized that we had performed testing on my competitor's head and neck restraint and a side net that produced fantastic numbers for neck tension, for that time. The values that we got with a head and neck restraint and the driver net were substantially lower than just the head and neck restraint alone, and nowhere near the low values we get today with the latest versions of our head and neck restraints alone, with out nets. That paper is only 4 years old this month, which represents a considerable jump in technology for that amount of time.

Look for more information on Drag Racing Safety in our latest SAE Motorsports paper which will be published in December as part of the 2008 SAE Motorsports Conference. We are proud of all of your accomplishments for this year. Come to the PRI show, booth #3065 and see what we have been doing to make your racing safer.

For more information about Occupant Safety Systems, contact us at (800) 731-4404, or on the web at www.safetysolutionsracing.com.