The extreme importance of cool suits became evident as many of them failed during the recent NASCAR Cup Series race at The Circuit of the Americas. Drivers, including Alex Bowman and AJ Allmendinger, went through an incredibly hard time as their suits failed to cool their bodies against the intense heat. Days after the worrying incident, Shane van Gisbergen has shared his two cents on the matter.
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The Trackhouse Racing driver understands how difficult it is for a driver when the suit doesn’t work. But then, he also pointed out that the possibility of them breaking down is very low. He said, “I think the percentage of it breaking is very low. But when it does break, it’s catastrophic. You saw that there were two or three on the weekend, and it became a big story.”
He isn’t someone who has never experienced a failed cool suit. He went through it when he won the Xfinity Series race at Chicago last season. “I had to leave Victory Lane early cuz I was struggling to stand up, seeing stars,” he narrated. “The veins around the shirt are normally cold water on your body. It becomes like a hot blanket, and it just suffocates you.”
SVG’s final stand is that they are reliable a majority of the time, and it is only in very odd situations that they fail. Nevertheless, it remains a major concern. There were no serious injuries sustained last Sunday. But that cannot be expected every time a cool suit fails. It could potentially even lead to fatal situations. So, what the sport needs are suits with zero margin for error.
Why cool suits are important now more than ever
The Next Gen car is designed in such a way that the heat from the radiator flows around the A-post and lands in the cockpit where the driver sits. Side windows are fixed only on the right side. So, the air can still get inside from the left.
Furthermore, the exhausts are placed next to the frame rails. Drivers cannot touch them from their seats, but they are in close vicinity. The heat from them adds to the pressure inside the cabin. Together, these factors make the cockpit a very hot place to be in.
Without cool suits, drivers are essentially baked. Hopefully, the sanctioning body will take Sunday’s example seriously and work on reaching a zero failure rate regarding cool suits, especially as the field prepares to go racing this Sunday in the Arizona desert.
