Attendees of the April 12, 2025 Stand 21 Safety Foundation’s Racing Goes Safer, 17th annual seminar at Long Beach had the treat of hearing from many informative and entertaining speakers in the sport, along with being rewarded with a couple of surprises.

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The program began with the presentation of the Stand 21 Safety Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which is given to “A person who has embodied the philosophy of safety first and dedicated their life to improving safety” in motorsports. The previous recipients of this special honor are Dr. Steve Olvey, Dr. Terry Trammell, and HANS co-inventor Jim Downing. This time the award recognized the man behind the SFI Safety Foundation for over forty years, Mr. Arnie Kuhns.

 

Accepting the crystal glass award on behalf of Mr. Kuhns, who passed away in 2023 was his stepson Chris Bowden, now VP of SFI. Chris shared his personal memories of the man who never raised his voice, yet was able to wrangle manufacturers of safety equipment together, and come to agreement on over 200 safety standard for racing equipment, used by over a hundred sanctioning bodies internationally. That’s a far cry from their beginnings with only four standards in 1978.

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Mike Hurst, the Technical Manager at SFI next told the audience about the specs developed for youth-sized helmets and frontal head restraints. The most memorable takeaway when it comes to safety for young drivers is proper fit. That applies to helmets, head surrounds and seats. During an impact, excessive clearance in any of these can allow the head or body to accelerate and have a harmful impact, before the proper padding can do its job and control the deceleration. Because children grow so quickly and may be using hand-me-down helmets, and seats, they may not always be firmly contained, and ‘rattle around’. Hurst recommends investing in properly fitting helmets as well as a custom-molded, energy-absorbing foam seat insert. These have become more affordable and can later be modified as the user grows. Several low cost, DIY seat kits are available these days. Remember to Mind the Gap!

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Danny Thompson shared with the audience pictures and anecdotes from his many decades in so many forms of racing, including open-wheel road racing, desert racing, stadium racing, and perhaps his favorite, land speed record attempts. He told the story of rebuilding his father, Mickey Thompson’s twin-engined Challenger II, which has been sitting abandoned for 42 years. Danny got emotional, as did many in the audience when he talked about fulfilling the mission of his late father with that 448.757 MPH record run at Bonneville he made in 2018, at 69 years old. Danny concluded his presentation with an invite for everyone to come to the SCTA’s El Mirage event this May where he will be racing again!

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As Danny was wrapping up, another veteran driver unexpectedly walked into the room and sat down. It was the endurance sports car racing winner and three-time Formula 5000 champion, Brian Redman. He had just been inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America earlier that week, and was happy to come on stage to talk about his racing adventures, including one in the 1971 Targa Florio road race. Gulf-Porsche team management, for whom he was driving a Porsche 908/03 said “whatever you do, don’t crash on the right side of the car!”. But he did, hitting a post right in the fuel tank, resulting in a huge inferno. Somehow, he got out but was burning head to toe. Later when all bandaged up, he “looked like the Invisible Man!”. He tells the story now with good humor, but it illustrates the level of acceptable danger in that era.

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The next surprise was the sneak preview of film maker Taylor Hawkins’ documentary ‘Stand 21 - The Legacy of Yves Morizot’. It features the Stand 21 founder talking about the evolution of safety in racing, starting with the time when unbelted drivers would rather be thrown out of a car than being trapped in a fire, as there were no safety standards at the time. Hawkins shot much of the film during the 2024 Historic Grand Prix of Monaco, and it features rare racing footage from the last fifty years. The film is still undergoing final edits; stay tuned for details on its release to the general public.

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With the seminar’s theme of ‘racing safe at any age’, although several veterans were featured, there were also examples on that day of change in the industry, with a younger generation stepping forward. These included: Yves Morizot, President and Founder of Stand 21 Racewear turning over the company reins to his sons Romain and Christopher, and financial director Jeremy Gabriel. And SFI is now being run by Arnie Kuhn’s stepchildren Chris Bowden and daughter Jennifer Faye, who is SFI President.

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Continuing on that trend, Dean Case noted that the university students he works with who are active in Formula SAE racing will become the next generation to shape our future automobile experience, in production vehicles as well as in motorsports. A large number of those students were in the room, and already up to speed on today’s racing safety practices.

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For those who were not able to attend the Seminar, videographer TJ Keon was on hand to record the event. And with the support of the SAE Southern California Section, It will be available shortly for viewing on the Racing Goes Safer YouTube channel @racinggoessafermotorsports6620 and SAE Southern California Section’s site saesocal.org