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The Driver Suit Blog-Introduction to Sports Memorabilia-TJ Zizzo Race-Used Lot

Another set of race-used memorabilia from TJ Zizzo

The Driver Suit Blog-Racing Innovators and Their Eureka Moments Part 1, Bill Simpson

By David G. Firestone

Everyone has a moment that shapes the rest of our lives for the better. For me, it was joining the TV crew in my sophomore year of high school. For some people, it might seem like the worst point in their lives. Sometimes you have to hit bottom to rise to the top. It might be horrible in the short term, but great in the long run.

Bill Simpson is one of those people. His moment came in 1958. He was drag racing at age 18, and broke both his arms in a crash. When you have both arms in a crash, it gives you time to think. Simpson began to think about a design for a parachute. He came up with a cross design for a parachute, and designed the cross parachute. He tested it on a public road, and was arrested for the stunt. The chute proved effective, and when “Big Daddy” Don Garlitts called, and that’s how Simpson Performance Products was founded.

This is the design that led to the first Nomex racing suit being invented in 1964. After this design proved effective, Simpson was brought on to NASA as a parachute consultant. It was there he met Pete Conrad, Apollo astronaut, third man to walk on the moon, and Skylab visitor. Conrad was also an avid race car driver, and knew of Simpson’s devotion to racing safety, so he introduced Simpson to Nomex, a fire retardent Kevlar material. Simpson began developing racing suits with the material, and it quickly became the standard material for driver suits, which it still is, 41 years later.

The X design of drag chute is still in use today. It is so effective, that while there were some minor design changes, including size changes, the basic design hasn’t changed. This is an example used by TJ Zizzo from 2010 to 2013. Zizzo ran two of these chutes on the back of his dragster, and this example is 12 feet by 12 feet. It shows a decent amount of wear, with stains and holes.There is a hole in the center that allows the chute to be deployed, and there is an inventory tag placed here as well. On the cables connecting the chute to the car, there is some extra protection. This is necessary because on top fuel dragsters, the engine is very close to the parachute attachment, and in the event of a fire, the chute will still be able to function. TJ’s example shows some wear on the silver layer. Here is video of the chute in use.

One thing that a lot of non drag racing fans don’t realize is that many drivers pack their own chutes. Race car drivers are control freaks, and so this makes sense. The logic a few drivers use is that if I mess it up, I don’t have anyone to blame for it except myself. Here is a video of Jack Beckman packing his chute,

and pro stock driver Rickie Jones explaining how he packs his own chute.

Drag racing chutes are amazing pieces of equipment, and I’m always amazed how it takes only a few people to change the sport as a whole. Next Week, I will continue this discussion with something even more awe inspiring.

The Driver Suit Blog-Tunnel Vision…A Good Thing?

By David G. Firestone

This is a helmet worn by Kevin LePage in 1994. This style of open-faced helmet was worn by drivers for many years in NASCAR, and it was allowed because NASCAR did not want to restrict the vision of the drivers. They felt that if this helmet kept drivers from losing situational awareness and help prevent tunnel vision on some level it would keep them from getting into dangerous wrecks. Why would a driver wear a visor to help create tunnel vision? Let me explain the whole story…

So this last Sunday, I had the day off, no motorsports on TV. I had purchased a racing slick from Zizzo Racing. TJ Zizzo is the driver, he’s based in Lincolnshire Illinois, I’m based in Evanston, and my friend Matt and I went down to pick up the slick. TJ was kind enough to show me around the shop, as they prepare the car for The Toyota Nationals at Las Vegas. TJ was awesome, and I had a great time.

One of the things that I got was a visor. I’ve been wanting to get an NHRA visor from some time, and I got one that had the modification I’ve been seeing, as seen below. I asked TJ why he had this modification, and he said that he wants to focus on the task at hand. He said that drag racing drivers can notice things, birds, scoreboards, women in the crowd, etc in the car in the moments leading up to the race, and this modification helps the driver by giving him tunnel vision. Tunnel vision is seen by the majority of people as a bad thing, but in something like drag racing, where intense focus for a brief period of time is a mandate, tunnel vision is a good thing. Top fuel dragsters have 10,000 horsepower and can go from 0 to 325 mph in less than 3 seconds.When you are behind the wheel of a car with that much power, you need to focus on the race as much as possible. TJ wears this style of visor because, the less he can see out of the helmet, the more he can focus on the race.TJ even said that this visor is much less covered than his current version, which looks something like this…This version is not uncommon in this day in age, both Al-Anabi drivers Khalid alBalooshi and Shawn Langdon wear visors similar to this design.

I didn’t bring my camera with me, I wish I had, because I got to see the remnants of his engine from his blow up in Indianapolis. As I have a tendency to do, I’ll let the footage speak for itself…

He still has the blower drive seen flying in the video. I was amazed how heavy it was. He has one shelf in his new shop that has the pieces of the engine, and the damage suffered, from a fan’s stand point. The manifold that blew was made of solid magnesium and was heavy duty. The crankshaft in question was not only broken, but was slightly bent near the break. I wound up getting one of the rear tires from that race.

Rear tires from top fuel dragsters are 3 feet tall by 17 inches wide. I’m planning on getting a glass to and making a coffee table at some point. The level of wear on the tires is amazing, with large patches of damage from the explosion.

TJ also signed it and personalized it to me!

I also got a front tire, which is 22 inches tall, by 3 inches wide. I’m not sure when it was raced, but it does show wear and it has ZIZZO written on the tread. To give an idea the size difference between the two, here are the two of them together in my office…I’ve gotta thank TJ Zizzo and Zizzo Racing for this chance. They are a great bunch of guys, they were all very nice, GO ZIZZO!