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I certainly applaud the requirement of race harnesses. A properly fitted harness will help in any type of track incident. And I'm really glad the Nationals committee are making that change.
A roll bar as fitted to a Cobra will only ever help in a roll over, it doesn't offer any side or frontal protection.
We have a few Cobras up here that have roll bars fitted that mount to the chassis in all 3 positions. They are made of thick enough material to comply. The cars already have race harnesses and some have race seats. But they fall down on not having 50mm clearance above the helmet. And they all go faster than the cut-off 11.99 time. These vehicles are regulary raced(monthly) by very experienced drivers.
I would really hate to see some of the fast drivers forced back onto their old street tyres just to be able to race at the Nationals. I reckon that would be even more dangerous. Especially with things like the old 15" T/A tyres that some have, certainly more of a chance of rolling one of those off the rims compared to their 16, 17 & 18" race tyres and that is a recipe for a bad accident and a good chance of a roll over.
The QLD Club has had a really strong response this year again for the Nationals and it takes a lot of work and dedication to get big numbers to make the trip to the nationals. I certainly fear these extra requirements might take the wind out of the sails somewhat, lets hope not.
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