The Driver Suit Blog

By David G. Firestone

So this week, we’re going to examine…you know what, I just can’t do this anymore! I’m tired of doing this. I’ve absolutely had it with racing stuff! I’ve done nothing but racing memorabilia for 10 years, I’m tired of it, and I quit. I’M DONE WITH RACING MEMORABILIA! I’m 33 and I need to reinvent myself. There is more to life than racing memorabilia. So I’m switching focus, and I’m gonna start focusing on Olympic memorabilia.

I bought some Olympic memorabilia from Steve Lundquist. Steve Lundquist is a former Olympic swimmer who won gold medals in the 100-meter breaststroke and the 400-meter medley relay at the 1984 Olympics, and 1982 World Championships, and 100 m breaststroke,won gold medals in the 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter breaststroke, and the 400-meter medley relay at the 1979 and 1983 Pan American games, as well as a bronze for the 200-meter medley in 1983

After his gold medal performance, he came back a hero. A lot of his memorabilia including racing memorabilia has come on the market, such as this trading card from 1992.

The card is in good condition, though it shows signs of age.

Levi’s was an official sponsor and supplier to the 1984 Olympics and this was was issued to and worn by Steve Lundquist, which he subsequently autographed. The cap shows signs of wear from age, but the autograph is still in great condition.

When he came back to Clayton Country, Georgia an Olympic hero, the Clayton County Chamber of Commerce awarded him this large plaque. Like the cap, it shows signs of age, but is still in good condition.

This is a sweater vest worn by Lundquist after he retired from competitive swimming. It is custom embroidered, and shows slight signs of age, but is in great condition.

It’s been both fun and tiring working with driver suits, but as I said, I need to reinvent myself. I’m 33, I need to change focus, I need to refresh myself, and this is, I think the best way to do it.

 By David G. Firestone

Editor’s Note, I was going to run an article on driver suits as a marketing tool, but I shelved that for now. I wasn’t happy with the way it was turning out so I decidied to run this instead. DF

Drag racing has been a popular form of auto racing, both to watch and participate. The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is the top of the mountain in drag racing. Four classes compete in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, top fuel, funny car, pro stock, and pro stock motorcycle. Each has their own unique uniform quirks.

Let’s start with top fuel. Top fuel dragsters are 25 feet long, nitromethane powered and run 10,000 horsepower. While they are traditionally open cockpit, in recent years canopies, introduced by Tony Schumacher have come into style. Schumacher said that when he drives, he wears a 5-layer suit, with two layers underneath that. As the fuel tank is at the front of the car, and the engine directly behind the driver, this style of suit is very necessary. He also wears the older sunglasses style visor, as does TJ Zizzo. I bought this visor from TJ and asked him why he has as much of it blacked out as he does.  He explained that when he is in the car, he needs to focus as much on the track as possible, and it’s easy to get distracted. This visor style helps create tunnel vision, and helps keep him focused. He also said that he blacks out more of the visor, so it looks like this now.

Funny cars are the next category. The name came about when drivers would take a regular car, move the front and rear wheelbases forward, and add large tires on the back wheels. Fran Hernandez, who at the time was head of Mercury’s racing program is credited as the first person to call them funny cars, doing so in 1965. Funny cars are, like top fuel dragsters, nitromethane powered, but these cars are only 8,000 horsepower. The driver suits and helmets are identical in design to top fuel driver suits. Older helmets, such as this Cruz Pedregon model from 2011 have respirators built into them. Since the engine is in front of the driver, breathing in fumes is a concern. However with the new modifications to the cars, these respirators have all but disappeared from the sport.

Pro stocks are next. Pro stocks are 1,300 horsepower, the engine has to be made in the same place as the engine, and use 118 octaine racing gas, instead of nitromethane. Because no forced induction can be used in pro stock, such as turbo charges, superchargers, or nitrous oxide, the cars are very technical. While pro stock drivers tend to wear the same basic driver suits, many drivers choose to wear two-piece suits instead of one-piece suits. I’ve never seen that in NASCAR, IndyCar, or F1.

The last class we will cover is pro stock motorcycle. Pro stock motorcycles are rated at around 375 horsepower, are designed to look like their street counterparts, and the handlebars can’t be used to turn the bike. These uniforms are unlike any other uniform in drag racing, in that fire protection is not their major design function. If something goes wrong in pro stock motorcycle, the rider will most likely be thrown from the bike. As such, the riders wear traditional motorcycle leathers, so that if the worst case scenario happens, the rider won’t be skinned alive.

As with all auto racing classes, safety is fluid, it’s constantly changing. After Scott Kalitta was tragically killed in Englishtown in 2008, a controversial decision was made that due to the power and speed that top fuel and funny cars create, they would lessen the length of the race from a quarter mile, or 1,320 feet to 1000 feet. This hasn’t sat well with fans, but has saved lives in the long run. One of the most critical safety features led to the current safety culture. All top fuel and funny car drivers use t-shaped parachutes. These were invented by Bill Simpson after a drag racing accident. This led to him working with NASA as a parachute consultant. As fate would have it, he ran into Pete Conrad, who was a racer when he wasn’t an astronaut. Conrad introduced Simpson to a material used for parachutes called Nomex. Conrad suggested that it would be a great material for driver suits. Simpson agreed, and the rest is history.

By David G. Firestone

We’ve talked a lot about many subjects, but let’s get back to…DRIVER SUITS! Yes I know, it’s been a while, but we’re getting back to business! Let’s get started. A lot of race car drivers aren’t full time professionals, but are weekend warriors who race for the love of the sport. Some are be involved in the auto industry, some aren’t. For some, they left the sport and started a business. Nort Northam is one of those people. He is a consignment auto dealer who is also a racer.

He likes to race in endurance racing, and he raced in the 1988 Sunbank 24 at Daytona, now the Rolex 24. Racing a Porsche 911 with Karl Durkheimer, Monte Shelton, and Jim Torres, he started 67th on the grid and finished 33rd. During that race, and for a few races after that, he wore this single-layer driver suit. The suit shows heavy use, with stains and scuff marks.

The suit was made by PBI and has a collar behind the Velcro-shut collar. The front has had a patch removed on the left side, and has a SUNBANK 24 AT DAYTONA patch and has NORT NORTHAM embroidered in chain-stitched lettering. The belt us unadorned,the legs have a lot of wear on them.The shoulders have safety straps on them. They are cloth strips designed to help pull an incapacitated driver from a damaged race car. They are black so they are visible on the yellow background. It doesn’t look elegant, but it does the job.

The sleeves have the same stripe design as the front, and have white cuffs.

The back design has some white material designed to give some slack to the suit. As the suit doesn’t have arm gussets so this is the next best thing.

The weekend warriors are an essential part to the motorsports industry. While many racing part companies work with the top teams, they also sell to the weekend warriors who race at local tracks, and the occasional regional event. Next week, we will discuss the driver suit as fashion.