SFI Decertification of Impact Racing Products
 

Just got this in my e-mail from SafeRacer

"FI Notice to Decertify Impact Racing Products

SafeRacer has never sold any Impact Racing products, but we know a lot of our customers and friends have some items from Impact. This note is just to make you aware of Notices that SFI posted yesterday concerning items they certify from Impact Racing. Please review the note from SFI, notice the Effective Date and be prepared to act accordingly.

March 26, 2010 - NOTICE OF DECERTIFICATION; NOTICE TO CEASE AND DESIST AND TERMINATION OF ALL CONTRACTS OF PARTICIPATION ISSUED TO IMPACT RACING

SFI Foundation, Inc., has issued a Notice of Decertification; Notice of Cease and Desist, and a notice terminating all Contracts of Participation to Impact Racing. Effective April 27, 2010, all products manufactured and/or distributed by Impact Racing pursuant to SFI Specification Programs 3.2A, 3.3, 16.1, and 16.5 are decertified. Evidence obtained by SFI shows that over a period of years Impact Racing has engaged in the production and use of counterfeit SFI conformance labels and patches, and affixed them to Impact products for use in motorsports. Under the Contracts of Participation between SFI and Impact, SFI conformance labels and patches may only be obtained from SFI and no other source. Evidence shows that Impact had counterfeit SFI labels and patches made in Asia and then affixed them to Impact products it distributed to members of the racing community. To SFI’s knowledge, Impact never advised its customers that its products contained phony SFI labels and patches. Impact never advised SFI of its systematic and longstanding practice of counterfeiting and distributing SFI patches and labeling.

Impact has been directed to cease and desist from this practice. SFI has directed Impact to immediately notify all affected customers to remove the counterfeit labeling and to offer the affected customers a full refund of the purchase price. SFI is requesting that all counterfeit conformance labels removed from Impact products be sent to SFI.

SFI has elected not to decertify these products immediately in order to minimize the potential hardships to members of the racing community that have been brought about by Impact’s counterfeiting activities."

I thought Impact was the same as Simpson...

I got the email to. Good thing I never got the Impact helmet I wanted. But I will be looking up ebay in the next month for cheap harnesses for local track days.

SafeRacer carries G-Force. $150 for a 5-pt with a cam lock. So far so good with mine, and it is certified. Cheaper than Simpson.
G-ForcePro 5PT Camlock Harness-SafeRacer

I'm starting to like G-Force. I have one of their helmets. They're getting more and more popular. Seems to be the best deal if I can't find one on Eeebay.

FWIW cam locks are sweet; they are definitely worth spending a little extra on :2cents:

I had never heard of Impact Racing until I saw this e-mail. I am coming from the motorcycle racing world however.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/223/picture035n.jpg
I have the 6 points with the cam locks and love them. They feel great.

I personally hate G-Force belts including pro. Just personal preference I guess. Safecraft is where its at.

From what I understand, Bill Simpson sold Simpson after the Earnhardt death, and started Impact. Thats what I've been told anyways, I have no clue how much truth is in that.

http://www.impactraceproducts.com/im...t_03262010.jpg

I feel bad for these guys. They're going to lose everything.

Another vote for G-force. I felt bad when I bought them because for whatever reason I had it in my head that they were a bit of a cheap ricer brand. But it's held up for years (infact I think my certification just expired or is about to). I also have Willans pads on my G-force harness, so that helps me feel fancy :)

Bonus points for having a MS and ECU harnessing in the same picture.

But do you feel bad if they actually were counter fitting SFI labels?

I don't know. Somethings off here. I guess we'll see how it turns out.

Playing devil's advocate... if SFI says you have to get the labels from them, maybe they charge $20 for each tag? I have no idea but you can be certain they're not free or it wouldn't be an issue. They're the certifying organization, so they can bend you over and you either take it or go out of business. Maybe once you get your product certified, you start making your own tags to save x amount per item. It would violate the contract but does that make the items themselves any less safe?

SFI could have a legitimate concern that counterfeit labels would be used on non-tested or non-certified products. But the alleged contract violation isn't that Impact never certified their products, just that they counterfeited the tags. So my impression is that it's more about money than driver safety in this case. If Impact did counterfeit the labels, then they were using SFI's logo to sell their products while depriving SFI of revenue that SFI needs to operate to test products.

If Colgate stopped "donating to" the American Dental Association but continued to use their logo on their toothpaste boxes, you'd see a similar dispute. It would be wrong for them to use the logo without compensation, but that wouldn't mean that Colgate won't get your teeth clean.

I don't own any Impact products so the outcome won't impact (LOL) me one way or the other. If I owned one of their helmets, for example, and I had to go buy a new one in order to pass tech, I'd be fucking pissed.

I agree with the fact that it most likely had to do with saving money, but Impacts products were selectively decertified TWICE last year for not meeting SFI requirements - I don't think it had anything to do with fake labels at that point.

Theres something wrong within that company..

Watching closely.

I can see both sides, but frankly a company willing to make fake labels is probably willing to skimp on other things. In my experience (which is admittedly damned limited next to many others on here) when you have a peron or group willing to do one sketchy thing they will do something else. The ability to rationalize rarely hinges on right and wrong basically.

If they were making cheap crap and claiming SFI or something, then the sooner they are out of business the better. But if this is some political snit with SFI then thats just dissappointing big time.

It's complicated.

Bill Simpson started Simpson Performance Products, and ran it for many years. After Earnhardt's death, there was some unpleasantness which ultimately led to Bill's resignation. He then started Impact!, which is a separate company.

I don't see anywhere that SFI is claiming that the Impact products weren't actually certified, or failed to meet functional standards, just that they were cheaping out on the labels.

Joe read the quotes in post 15^, twice last year they stated that they didn't fully meet standards. Unless if you were referring to this latest announcement, which doesn't actually say anything about not passing standards.

IHRA banned their stuff now too apparently.

+1 for something's fishy in this pond here

Press release: http://www.impactraceproducts.com/pd...e_04012010.pdf

After watching a shit ton of racing this weekend I noticed a lot of Impact Racing gear. I got curious...

Looks like anything before 2009 and 2010 is decertified. Still in business though. Play nice!