The R3 Neck Support May Be Discontinued. Is That A Good Thing?

I got an email from a racing supply store today telling me that the Safety Solutions R3 might be discontinued.

My first thought was, "Good".

For those of you who don't spend your lives thinking about head-and-neck restraint systems --- in other words, those of you who have a "life" --- I'll explain what the R3 is: it's kind of a descendant of the original Hutchens device. That device straps to your body and your helmet attaches to it. The HANS Device, by contrast, does not attach to the body in any way. It sits on your shoulders and is, in theory, immobilized by the pressure of your harness straps.

The Hutchens, R3, et al have become popular with driving instructors who cannot rely on their students having four, five, or six point harnesses in their cars. (And, for what it's worth, I am not in favor of having two shoulder straps in any car without a full cage. When your roof collapses, even a little bit, you don't want your head held in place under it.) All but the original Hutchens are NASCAR approved. This past weekend at VIR I saw one of my co-drivers, a professional instructor named Scott Barton, get in the race car with an R3 strapped to his back.

That being said, as someone who once fractured his second cervical vertebrae and spent the better part of a year in a really stupid-looking four-post neck brace, I'm completely paranoid about neck injuries. For that reason, I've used the top-line HANS Professional since 2007, well before its use was required anywhere in club racing. I had mine re-certified last year. I've taken a solid hit into Mid-Ohio's Armco while wearing it, by the way, and I suffered no harm.

My theory on this is that the R3 might work, and I can't say that it doesn't, but the HANS does work and its effectiveness has been proven at the highest levels and hardest impacts in motorsports. The F1 guys mostly wear the Stand 21 version of the HANS, although I've seen a few drivers wear the new low-profile HANS recently. Think about some of the nose-first impacts that you've seen in F1 over the past few years, and consider the fact that no major-series driver has had significant neck injury since the introduction of the HANS.

I'm a big fan of freedom of choice. I think that the Mitsubishi Galant sucks and blows but if you want to buy one I will chain myself to the dealership to prevent the government or anyone else from stopping you. I think that the Hublot Big Bang is a joke but I'm glad you have the right to buy one. I think that a diversity of choice is necessary in everything from state tax laws to the Saturday night crew at the Cheetah in Atlanta, GA. Without it, there's no progress. Look at what happened to the British car industry once the government owned the whole thing. Look at how quickly even staid makers like Glock or Rolex or Rolls-Royce respond very specifically to customer demand and competitive product nowadays. A marketplace without diversity is one that will not yield the best result for its participants.

So I don't really like the idea that the R3 might go off the market. I think there should be all sorts of head and neck restraints and the search for a better one should never stop. I think you should be able to walk into a racer supply store and see every conceivable method of preventing you from being internally decapitated.

But when it comes to the actual testing or use of those products, you can do it yourself, because I'm going to stick with my HANS Device until they peel it off my charred and mangled body.