Racing suit
[1] By 1967, the majority of competitors in Formula One, NASCAR, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), United States Auto Club (USAC), and Champ Car (the predecessor to modern IndyCar) began wearing specialized fire suits.
[3][8][9][10][11] The suits also have special epaulettes or yokes on the shoulder area that act as "handles" in order to lift a driver strapped to a racing seat out of a vehicle.
[9][16] Additional accessories, including fire-resistant long underwear, gloves, shoes, and balaclava-like face masks or "head socks" are also worn.
The char thickens the section of fiber exposed to the flame, preventing the spread of the fire to the rest of the suit and inhibiting the transfer of heat to the wearer of the garment.
[19][24][21] The suits are not entirely fireproof, but rather fire retardant for a period of time, allowing an individual to escape an incident or be rescued with minimal injury.
[13][25][26] Bill Simpson, an innovator in racing safety, estimated in 1993 that a person has "20 to 30 seconds" before a fire suit begins to burn.
[28][29] The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) regulates suits for numerous racing series such as MotoGP and the AMA Supercross Championship.
[1][2][34][11] American firm Hinchman had manufactured specialized racing suits since the mid-1920s, worn by drivers Babe Stapp and Pete DePaolo.
In NASCAR, a baking soda solution was typically used, while the SCCA mandated racing suits treated in boric acid or borax.
[37][38] The catalyst for developing racing suits that could effectively resist fire came in the late 1950s and 1960s, when several fiery crashes occurred in the motorsport world.
[39][40] In 1963, NHRA Top Fuel driver and Division 7 Tech Director Chuck Branham died after suffering burns in a crash.
[25][4] During NASCAR's 1964 World 600 (today's Coca-Cola 600), Fireball Roberts was involved in a crash on lap seven while avoiding two other cars, passing away five weeks later.
[1][2][11][41][42] One week later during the 1964 Indianapolis 500, drivers Dave MacDonald and Eddie Sachs were killed in a seven-car crash on the second lap of the race.
[41][43][26][38] Following the incidents, Jim Deist and Bill Simpson, who developed some of the first drag parachutes, released the first racing suits designed to be fire-retardant.
[4] By the fall of that year after Roberts' crash, nearly all NASCAR competitors began wearing fire suits,[1] although no official rule was in place.
[30] Actor Steve McQueen was believed to have worn asbestos suits when performing stunts for films, which may have contributed to his contraction of mesothelioma.
[14] In 1979, several F1 drivers including Niki Lauda, Mario Andretti, and Carlos Reutemann began competing in bulky five-layer suits constructed to NASA specifications.
Following the incident, in which several items of Punch's clothing were singed or melted, ESPN mandated that its pit reporters wear fire-retardant suits.
[5][51][52][53] The members of the Red Star crew in the 2000 film Charlie's Angels wore black Momo Corse Torino firesuits.
