Seat Safety Being Addressed; Lajoie All For It

Racing is a risky business. Accidents are bound to happen which could result in injuries and in worst cases, death. Every race car driver competing knows this. As morbid as it sounds, it�s like having one foot in the grave. It�s because of this that one person took it upon himself to actively advocate and spread awareness about driver�s safety over the years. Now NASCAR has woken up and is taking steps to make safety for drivers a priority. God bless them for this.

Along with General Motors and a group of manufacturers who specialize in producing safety equipment, NASCAR held a meeting in order to address the safety needs of their race car drivers by improving the race car seat standards for all their vehicles at all levels. Among those who were invited to participate were Hendrick Motorsports, Randy Lajoie (the owner of The Joie of Seating), Richardson and HANS Performance Products and ISP. As per Lajoie, the discussions were held at the Delphi Facility and it primarily focused on preventing injuries to racers by correcting poor seat design, by using quality materials and ensuring proper installation.

Over the years, Randy Lajoie has been one of the advocates of promoting safety in NASCAR. He has shown support for this cause by touring the country last year with an interactive unit to create awareness on how it�s important for safety issues and features to be addressed and implemented in all NASCAR vehicles. Plans are in place for him to continue the tour this year as well. As a token of appreciation for his attempts to spread safety awareness and at the same time creating seats focusing on racing safety, the North Carolina Motorsports Association awarded Randy with their 2007 Industry Safety Innovation award.

Congratulations and hats-off to you Randy for taking up this cause. Hopefully this will strike a chord and make not only the drivers but the team owners aware of how important of an issue this is. And to NASCAR, let�s have those driver seats fixed!

Sources: speedtv.com, scenedaily.com