James Rice: His Safety Reminder

James Rice: His Safety Reminder

As James Rice puts on his Simpson Hybrid Pro head-and-neck restraint system before the Schaeffer’s Oil Iron-Man Championship Late Model Series event at Tennessee’s Wartburg Speedway, he takes a look at his family — his wife, Jessica, and daughter, Blake. Loved ones can break a racer’s intense focus and remind them of why they need to take safety seriously.

“When I’m getting into the car, all I’m thinking of is what I need to do when I get onto the racetrack,” said Rice, 27, of Verona, Kentucky. “[The dangers of the sport], yes, it definitely crosses my mind, but leading up to that point.”

Rice takes his safety seriously. His personal safety equipment includes a Leaf Racewear two-layer fire suit, Bell Racing USA helmet, ButlerBuilt full-containment seat, Hooker Harness five-point harness, and a Firebottle fire suppression system inside his Rocket Chassis XR-1 dirt late model.

“A lot of guys [feel safety equipment is] an inconvenience, because it’s another thousand dollars for a Firebottle [system],” said Rice. “It does suck to have to buy them, but in the long run, you have all this money in a race car anyway, what’s another thousand to be safe?”

In Rice’s early years of racing late models, today’s modern safety equipment was virtually unheard of.

“When I first started, in 2011, I had a [seat with a] single headrest and no head-and-neck restraint,” Rice said. “Once you sit in [a full-containment seat], and get used to it, it is more comfortable. I don’t mind the big headrests anymore. I don’t know if I could race without it. Some people get claustrophobic sitting in there, but I like all that tightness around me. It makes me feel safer.”

While safety equipment comes as an afterthought for some racers, James Rice remembers a major reason for investing in it.

“My little girl is all I think about these days,” Rice said. “It would be terrible if anything happened to me.”

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