Racing Helmets

Racing Helmets
By: John W Daniele

The importance of a racing helmet in competitive racing events cannot be understated. The safety of the racers should be the utmost concern of the racers, race officials, and team organizers and leaders. Implementing a strict racing helmet policy with mandatory equipment checks allows for the safety of all racers and improves the overall quality of the race, competition, and sport as a whole. For racers, the competitive nature begins to be taken too far at times during the course of a race, and in these instances, injuries, crashes, and collisions can occur. For this reason, a racing helmet is always suggested in any form of racing competition, exhibition, or event. Many types of racing exist as well. Racing competitions in automobiles, motorcycles, boats, or motorbikes present serious hazards to racers not wearing a racing helmet, even to those individuals who choose to wear a racing helmet. The fast speeds, massive moving pieces of metal, and aggressive nature of competitors can lead to some catastrophic and awe striking crashes. These crashes often leave fans wondering, How could anybody survive that crash?! The answer is simply: a properly fitted racing helmet.

A racing helmet is your basic helmet design. This basic design includes a protective shell that covers the racers head and possibly neck area. Along with the basic shell design in a racing helmet, racing helmets also include a snuggly fitting chinstrap apparatus. This chinstrap is vital in keeping a racing helmet in position and properly fitting on the racers head. In the event of an accident, collision, or sudden maneuver, the chinstrap maintains the protective position of the helmet on the racers head and keeps the helmet in place in the event of initial impact. This is especially important in hobbies, sports, competitions, and racers where collisions and crashes often lead to multiple impacts. The safety importance of a racing helmet only increases as racers expand their maneuvers and speed when making these maneuvers during races and competitions. Other amenities to a racing helmet include a visors, communication equipment, and cooling devices. These features are relatively new in the sport of professional automobile racing. The visor, which has been standard for some time, only increases the protection of a racers face and eye area during the course of a race. Minor sun glare can easily blind a racer at a crucial point in the race, and this incident could lead to catastrophic and mind boggling results in the form of accidents and collisions. At the very least, this temporary blindness is a significant competitive disadvantage during the course of a competition. Improved visors on a racing helmet benefits safety and racers advantages in a race. Communication earphones and microphones are sometimes implemented in professional racers racing helmet. This allows track officials, teammates, and pit crews to communicate vital information to the racer when competition is occurring. Another relatively new innovation is the implementation of cooling devices in the racing helmet. During the course of a race, temperatures steadily rise within vehicles, and this overexposure to heat can lead to poor decision making on the part of racing drivers.


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About the Author:
John Daniele is an expert on motorcycle helmets. For information or to purchase a handcrafted, light-weight, fiberglass novelty motorcycle helmets see