Humpy Bumper in Final Stages of Testing UPDATE 3: A new safety bumper designed to help absorb the energy of a frontal impact is in the final stages of testing and could be available for drivers before the end of the current Winston Cup season. Manufacturers of the so-called “Humpy Bumper,” the brainchild of Lowe’s Motor Speedway president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler, are hopeful of receiving NASCAR approval soon after the completion of six crash tests scheduled later this month at the Charlotte racing facility. The final test, Aug. 28, will be open to the public. “NASCAR has been a great partner in helping us develop this,” said Paul Lew, a Las Vegas-based composite materials design engineer and manufacturer working with Wheeler. The safety bumper has tested extraordinarily well, Lew said, in computer simulation and barrier testing, adding that the final hurdle is the crash tests in Charlotte.(CNN/SI), past news on the bumper on my Safety News Page UPDATE: hearing they are testing the Humpy Bumper at Las Vegas Motor Speedway today(8-16-2001) UPDATE 2: The developer of an energy-absorbing bumper said Thursday he anticipates NASCAR approving the safety device within two weeks. “We’re working very closely with NASCAR and we’re in the final stages right now,” said Paul Lew, a Las Vegas-based composite materials engineer, designer and manufacturer. Lew said the 16-pound bumper, priced at $6,000, has gone through computer simulation testing, crash testing in a facility and crash testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Lew said he would not reveal any data until an Aug.28 news conference where a stock car with the bumper will be crash tested at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.(Roanoke Times)(8-17-2001) UPDATE 3: Having completed three days of closed testing this week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Paul Lew is confident his new energy-absorbing “Humpy Bumper” will be affixed to the front ends of NASCAR Winston Cup cars by next month. Lew, president of the Las Vegas-based Lew Composites, said this week’s round of testing confirmed that the device will decrease the G-forces a driver is subjected to in head-on and near head-on crashes — such as those that killed NASCAR drivers Dale Earnhardt, Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper. A final, public test on Aug. 28, which originally had been planned for Las Vegas Motor Speedway, has been moved to Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., and will be attended by NASCAR race team officials and the media. Humpy Wheeler, after whom the “Humpy Bumper” is named, is president of Lowe’s Motor Speedway and it is believed the test was moved to that track in deference to Wheeler.(Las Vegas Sun)(8-18-2001)
