LV engineer continues to work on ‘Humpy Bumper’

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2001 | 10:26 a.m.

Development of the energy-absorbing "Humpy Bumper," which is being tested by Las Vegas-based Lew Composites, will continue despite ominous remarks by NASCAR president Mike Helton during Tuesday's press conference to announce the findings of a six-month investigation into the death of Dale Earnhardt.

"We will continue to aggressively pursue any legitimate safety enhancement opportunity," Helton said before adding, "(but) we will not rush to fix one thing without fully understanding the unintended consequences in other areas."

Paul Lew, president of Lew Composites and one of the designers of the "Humpy Bumper," told the Sun last week that he anticipated the device would be approved by NASCAR and could be used on Winston Cup cars in race conditions "in the month of September." After watching Tuesday's announcement, Lew said his project would proceed as planned.

"I don't know that that comment was even directed toward the Humpy Bumper," Lew said. "What happened (Tuesday) was a crash investigation and nothing more. It didn't change anything that we've got planned."

Lew has a public test of the device scheduled for next Tuesday at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. At that time, Winston Cup teams will have a chance to see the bumper perform in a crash test.

"Testing on the Humpy Bumper will be complete as of (next Tuesday) and it will be thorough and complete," Lew said. "The bumper is very effective."

H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, president and chief operating officer of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., and the person for whom the "Humpy Bumper" is named, said he hopes the device will be approved by NASCAR and available to teams by the end of the season.

"I think the conversation about head restraints, seat belts and seats was good but there is room for improvement in the area of energy absorption," Wheeler said in a statement. "It is going to take four things working together: the six-point seat belts, the head restraints, better seats and I'm strongly pushing this energy-absorbing bumper for the front of the car.

"I'm hopeful this composite bumper will be on some cars by the Oct. 7 UAW-GM Quality 500 here (at Lowe's Motor Speedway)."