Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"The Stange Story of the Humpy Bumper"

Posted by nascarman on September 28, 2017

Viewed 1944 times Tweet In early 2001, NASCAR was in big trouble. Over a period of eight months, four drivers had died in similar, head-on crashes. The series was thrown into a period of rapid research and development to protect the lives of those who raced. Over the course of 2001, head and neck restraint devices were mandated, kill switches were required, and alternatives to concrete walls were further researched. Soft walls were sure to absorb a lot of an accident's force, but why make soft walls when you could have a soft car?



Yeah, why not make the front of the car absorb an impact? While HANS devices and SAFER barriers became common, a planned soft bumper was an aspect that never came to be. This is the odd story of the "Humpy Bumper."





The Humpy Bumper (Pete McCole / autoracing1.com)



After Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, and Tony Roper lost their lives in 2000, safety improvements became a hot topic. The 2001 season started with a debate over the effectiveness of the HANS device and how this restraint may help save lives. After Dale Earnhardt died, further pressure was placed on all drivers to wear one.



But maybe something could be done outside of the driver's cockpit.



Maybe the cars weren't absorbing enough of the impact. They're built of steel tubes welded into a roll cage, maybe that's too strong. Then-President of Charlotte Motor Speedway, Humpy Wheeler had been around racing for nearly 50 years and he had the opinion that cars were too strong. When it comes to safety, pretty much every idea is considered and Humpy came up with an idea of his own: The Humpy Bumper.



Teaming with an engineer from Las Vegas named Paul Lew, Humpy helped design a bumper insert that would absorb much of an accident's impact. Made from carbon fiber, the "Humpy Bumper" as it was known, would attach at the frame rails and go across the nose of the car in front of the radiator. The safety device would remain hidden from view, covered by the front valence and existing sheet metal.



"We need to eliminate totally the lethal part of this sport, and that's what everybody's objective should be," Wheeler said in an interview with the Roanoke Times. "If it isn't, they need to change their objective. I don't think we'll ever eliminate injury because this is a contact, high-speed sport, but I do think we can eliminate the lethal part of it."





Wheeler and Lew Showing the Bumper's Strength (Pete McCole / autoracing1.com)



The Humpy Bumper was officially unveiled at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, three days before the track hosted the 2001 All-Star Race. Weighing 16 pounds and costing less than $6,000 each, the device was designed for crashes at a 20-30 degree frontal impact.



Throughout the summer, testing on the bumper was done with computer simulations and sled-crash tests at the University of Dayton Research Institute and General Motors. The final spectacle came on August 28th when an actual crash test using a Cup Series race car occurred at Charlotte in front of members of the media. To show the bumper's effectiveness, a white Chevy Monte Carlo race car was driven by remote control into the Charlotte wall at 40 miles per hour. However, while Humpy thought the test showed damage to the car was reduced with the bumper, NASCAR still wasn't convinced. They would not allow use of the bumper for the 2001 season.





The Crash Test Done at Charlotte (AP Photo / LJWorld.com)



"That is just unrealistic, not realistic at all," NASCAR Vice President, Jim Hunter told CNN/SI shortly after the test. Unfortunately, only 37 days after the crash test at Charlotte, another driver would lose his life against that same wall.



Battling for the lead with four laps to go in the ARCA race at Charlotte, Blaise Alexander made contact with Kerry Earnhardt. Alexander's Pontiac hit the wall with the same head-on impact the Humpy Bumper sought to minimize. Alexander did not wear a head restraint device and he died of the same basilar skull fracture that killed four other drivers in the past year and a half. For Paul Lew and Humpy Wheeler, men who developed a device they felt could prevent deaths like this, they were outraged that their product wasn't taken more seriously.



"I and every one here at Lew Composites send our heartfelt sympathy to the Alexander family because we are very passionate about motorsports and we have several engineers here who are personal friends of Blaise," Paul Lew said in a statement. "If this doesn't make NASCAR approve the bumper, then they are acting irresponsibly because (the use of the bumper) would greatly swing the driver's odds of survival in his favor." Wheeler too added his outrage.



"Action has to be taken quickly because this could happen again tomorrow, it could happen Sunday, it could happen next week," said Wheeler. "It has just got to stop. I have lost patience with the people in this industry who are dragging their feet. I'm sick of it."



NASCAR did respond to Alexander's death by making head restraint systems mandatory for all drivers. However, they didn't feel the Humpy Bumper would make any difference.



"The data that is available and testing that has been done do not allow us to draw any conclusions that are meaningful because of speed at which the tests have been done will not allow us to," said NASCAR senior vice president, George Pyne. Humpy obviously felt that was incorrect.



"With all due respect to NASCAR's 'experts,' we obviously need to do a better job of explaining how this energy-absorbing bumper works," Wheeler said. "The difficulty in understanding this bumper is that it is made of directional carbon fiber. Only five percent of all carbon fiber usage is directional. Therefore, only those who work closely with it really understand its remarkable ability to redirect energy."



As the HANS Device was made mandatory and the SAFER barrier was installed on all tracks, safety improvements made something like the Humpy Bumper unnecessary. Quietly, it faded into the past. Perhaps if other areas of safety hadn't improved, it would have had merrit. But today the Humpy Bumper has no more significance than a quirky oddity in the search for safety.



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