Happy New Year and welcome to my first Blog! 2008 has been a great year for us and I wanted to take the time to share some of the Highlights before getting too far into the new year. Along with coming out with new products, we have also attended some great conferences, races and special trade events this past year that kept us pretty busy.

The first event that comes to mind is one I didn't get to attend, but was very proud of.Safety Solutions was nominated for and won for the NCMA "Safety Innovation" award.  Nicole, my wife and vice president, attended and accepted the award in my absence. The nominees we were up against were Hendrick's Carbon Seats and NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow.

Not long after that, Nicole and I made our first trip to Italy to work with the FIA Institute on our Hybrid approval. We were able to get a lot accomplished in the time we spent there.  I did make a return trip in October that turned out to be just as beneficial in finalizing the approval steps. We are looking forward to making the official announcement!

We always look forward to the ICMS (International Council of Motorsports Sciences) conference and this year's was no different. We enjoy seeing the doctors and engineers who are researching all aspects of racing from ear accelerometer technology to crash barrier testing and more. It is always very informative and a conference we wouldn't miss.

Another Conference we attended this year (and in the past) was the SAE Conference that was held in Charlotte, NC the first week of December. I gave a lecture on the advancements we made to Funny Cars, particularly John Force's cars. The lecture was based on the paper I wrote with John Melvin of Tandelta and Kris VanGilder of Innovative Safety Products. We had a lot of good feed back and compliments from those who attended. SAE Paper: Occupant Compartment Updates for Side to Side Vibration in a Fuel Funny Car  no. 2008-01-2969

John Melvin of Tandelta, John Force of John Force Racing, Michael Royce SAE General Chair,Trevor Ashline of Safety Solutions, Kris VanGilder of Innovative Safety Products, Don Taylor of NHRA
Shortly, and I mean shortly, after the conference came the PRI (Performance Racing Industry) trade show. This is always a huge event for us and we wouldn't miss this one for sure. We enjoy the opportunity it gives us to meet with customers of all types and answer their questions about our products. People look forward to coming by our booth to see us and our products in person. It's a lot of work and a lot of talking but it's definately a great show!

PRI Show 2008

At PRI last year (2007) we came out with the Hybrid Rage and R3 Rage. This year we came out with the Hybrid Pro, Hybrid Pro Rage and Safety Solution's Seatbelts. Make sure you check them out! Our Rage series is now at a new lower price, three devices and one low price; $649.

There are so many great events and things we did this year, these are just a few. It would literally take me all year to write about them all. I wanted to do a little "wrap up" of 2008.

2009 started off with a trip to Daytona for Grand Am. The next trip was to Birmingham, England for the FIA Liason Group meeting and the Autosport Trade Show. Other than driving on the right hand side of the car and the left hand side of the road, the trip went extremely well. The reception from the vendors in regards to our products was welcoming and the FIA meeting was very productive.

Grand Am Mandates Driver Nets

Since we've been back we have attended the NASCAR Summit and did a lecture at the APBA National Convention. We are looking forward to all the races and events to come...see you at the races!

Watch for Trevor's next blog...