U.S. and British Firms Share SEMA Motorsports Engineering Award
19 November 1998
U.S. and British Firms Share Prestigious SEMA Motorsports Engineering AwardWARRENDALE, Pa., Nov. 18 -- Lear Corporation of Southfield, Michigan, and Stewart Grand Prix of Bucks, England, have won the 1998 SEMA Motorsports Engineering Award for the Lear Formula 1 Extractable Seat System that provides quick and safe removal of a driver after an on-track accident. Presented by the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) the award was given for the outstanding contribution to state-of-the-art motorsports engineering between December 1996 to October 1998. The recipient is selected by an invited group of motorsports members including Dan Rivard, Ford Motor Company (ret.); Paul W. Haney, TV Motorsports; Wiley R. McCoy, McLaren Engines, Inc.; Geoff Goddard, TWR Ltd.; John Pierce, Kestrel Advisors Inc.; Michael J. Royce, Chrysler Corporation; J. Kirk Russell, CART Inc.; and Terry Satchell, Andry Petree Racing Inc. The award will be presented at the Motorsports Engineering Conference banquet November 18 in the Dearborn Room of the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Michigan. Daniel Jannette, president of Lear Corporation's Technology Division and Neil Ressler, vice president of Advanced Vehicle Technology, Ford Motor Company and a member of the Stewart Grand Prix Board will accept the award from Charles Blum, president, SEMA. Prior to the development of this new seat, there was no proven, tested, extractable seat for any race drivers. The extractable seat saves time and can eliminate post-shunt trauma caused by manual extrication of the driver after a track accident. Lear worked with the Federation Internationale de L'Automobile (FIA) Medical Commission, Technical Working Group and Stewart Grand Prix to develop and implement the design. The Lear Motorsports Team directed each step of product development and was on site in Belgium and Austria during track testing by the FIA's safety and the medical crews. The Motorsports Engineering Conference is a biennial event organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) that focuses on all forms of professional motorsports engineering technology for open-wheel, sports car, sedan, stock car, drag racing, rally, and motorcycle competitions. For further information contact SAE at 724-772-7131, e-mail meetings@sae.org or visit the SAE website at http://www.sae.org. SAE is a non-profit educational and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of mobility technology to better serve humanity. More than 74,000 engineers and scientists who are SAE members develop technical information on all forms of self-propelled vehicles including automobiles, trucks and buses, off-highway equipment, aircraft, aerospace vehicles, marine, rail, and transit systems. SAE disseminates this information through its meetings, books, technical papers, magazines, standards, reports, continuing education programs, and electronic databases.