In road racing, all sanctioning bodies require you to wear a head and neck restraint (HNR device). While the details may seem a bit gruesome, the reasoning should be enough to convince you that HNR devices are a great invention. If you think about it, your torso is strapped into the car. If you hit a barrier or another car, your car will stop – potentially very quickly. Your harness will prevent your torso from slamming into the steering wheel, but what stops your head? Since your head weighs about 11 lb, it has serious momentum and in a crash, it wants to keep moving while your torso remains relatively stationary. If your head keeps moving and your torso is held to the seat, you could break you neck, as we learned when Dale Earnhardt was killed at Daytona. Instead, you wear an HNR device which connects your helmet (and head) to the relatively stationary harness that is holding your torso in place.
There are several types of head and neck restraint devices, each with its own benefits:
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The Bell Racing RS7C LTWT Carbon is a pretty compelling helmet. It offers best in class ventilation and airflow, in addition to being one of the lightest helmets in its category.
All-in-all, we really enjoyed using and reviewing the Garmin Catalyst Driving Performance Optimizer for HPDE/track day purposes.