I watched the NPK when Mike's Mustang caught on fire and he was struggling with the fire system actuator cable. I cant understand why these guys don't pull the pin before staging the car. Now I don't have a fire system on my 10 second bracket car but maybe I should think about installing one with the guidance of Tim Mcamis.
Here is the vid Tim has produced with some very good information that may have reduced the damage to Mikes racecar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17vbg_iqgEs

Gus

I've had a on board fire system that I have never used with 5 sprayers, three in the engine compartment and two in the driver compartment, that I will install in my new heads up no prep supercharge E85 car now, thanks for posting your post
if I'm remembering correctly he had a hard time unfastening the drivers seat belt 5 point safety harness trying to get out of the car also
My new car will have the higher priced hit to release cam lock latch driver harness, not the standard cheaper mechanical pull and push latch I'll will always cock it also after hooking it up, arm it, so it releases quickly also

Mike like the most of us isn’t in the best physical shape as we get older. We could all do better at getting ourselves in better shape.

Didn’t he have trouble unbuckling? Thought he did. If the fire system didn’t go off he should’ve gotten out in a couple seconds, his life is more important than the car.

Mike made a facebook post about this, right after it happened. Basically, the pin is in it because the system had accidentally been fired off a couple of times. So they put a flag on the pin that he could easily reach from the driver's seat. The plan was to pull the flag, then activate the system, the problem was the pin got bent, and when he pulled the flag it ripped off, and he can't reach the pin from his seat. He also showed pics that were taken, of the inside of the car, from the night before and the pin wasn't bent. He also took full responsibility for all of it.


Joe

some thing to think about. I have practiced getting unbuckled and out in an emergency. Birdtracker

^^^ Yup, me too.
I like the turn-the-knob-to-release style of belts myself, never liked the "assemble & lever" style.
I'm thinking the fire system deal was placed there so it couldn't be bumped & set off during between-rounds thrashing, but needs re-thinking.
Maybe something nearer the shifter, or somewhere easily accessible but not in the way of maintenance ?

That was rather startling to watch - and seemed like a lot of smoke inhalation while wrestling the harness.

I have an on board fire system in my Challenger with 6 spray nozzles. 3 in the engine compartment and 3 pointing at me towards the driver seat. I have the bottle mounted behind my driver's seat on the horizontal cage bar.

Big Country Swanstrom got him out of the car. The track crew looked woefully unprepared.

Did I tell you I hate that guy
That being said I'm glad he has not hurt himself racing, Yet
Somebody in that family must have a lot of money to support his racing

It has been at least 30 years since I last spoke to him when I lived in San Antonio. Yes, he was probably 175 lbs back then!