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General Category => Harness Racing => Topic started by: Sweet on May 08, 2026, 09:13:19 PM

Title: How hard is a harness driver's helmet?
Post by: Sweet on May 08, 2026, 09:13:19 PM
Let's use me as a test dummy, that should be an easy visual    ngc3

A .22 up close to the back of it, a .30-06 from a distance

A hard strike with a samurai sword or toilet bowl cover to the top of it

I flew up 10 feet from the sulky and landed on it

How is this thing holding up...on me?   ;D

Title: Re: How hard is a harness driver's helmet?
Post by: seriously on May 08, 2026, 10:05:18 PM
It must be incredibly strong as it is charged with protecting some of the most precious cargo....a harness driver's brain!   Now that is a national treasure.  An 8th Wonder.   

 ngc3
Title: Re: How hard is a harness driver's helmet?
Post by: Sweet on May 08, 2026, 10:17:44 PM
It must be incredibly strong as it is charged with protecting some of the most precious cargo....a harness driver's brain!   Now that is a national treasure.  An 8th Wonder.   

 ngc3

 ngc3 ngc3

What's the 7th wonder of the world on that planet, a burrito  ngc3
Title: Re: How hard is a harness driver's helmet?
Post by: Kirby's Ace on May 09, 2026, 11:05:05 AM
I think its.......ALMOST everyone loves him!

MARK FORD

 ;D
Title: Re: How hard is a harness driver's helmet?
Post by: Junebug990 on May 09, 2026, 11:38:59 AM
I remember when this issue first popped up. It was around 82 or 83 when Jack Parker Jr. had a horrific accident at the Meadowlands. After that happened the drivers were wearing motorcycle helmets or prototype for a time. Does anyone remember that.
Title: Re: How hard is a harness driver's helmet?
Post by: dougie on May 09, 2026, 12:25:05 PM
The helmets seemed pretty hard. My trainer at Pompano allowed me to " jog" a horse at the training track there once. He gave me a helmet while all the others had baseball caps on. A trainer jogging past me named Gordon Norris asked me if i I was "having fun". I was going around about 5 miles per hour and told him I was "terrified". He laughed. I never got back into a bike again.
Title: Re: How hard is a harness driver's helmet?
Post by: toothman on May 09, 2026, 04:57:58 PM
I remember when this issue first popped up. It was around 82 or 83 when Jack Parker Jr. had a horrific accident at the Meadowlands. After that happened the drivers were wearing motorcycle helmets or prototype for a time. Does anyone remember that.

I remember Del Insko going down at Yonkers in 1975 and suffered a fractured skull when a horse stepped on him and split his plastic batters helmet type helmet.
The Snell Foundation (named after race car driver Pete Snell) monitors and rates the safety of motorcycle and other helmets and they have a rating for harness helmets as well.
Mine was made by Grattan.
Yes, I thought that having my own helmet would help me win the Bartenders Derby at Monti. It didn't.

l
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