46 • RACE CONTROL
create continues, as much a part of Bell’s ethos
today as it was back in Roy’s day. Now in no way
does these mean that other manufactures are
dropping the game here in fact the research by
all leading helmet companies is outstanding and
again helmet choice is a drivers choice when it
comes to what they prefer to wear for both safety
and comfort.
Recently at Indianapolis we had the chance
to sit down with Kyle Kietzmann president of
Bell Racing USA and look more deeply in to one
development in the helmet that has changed the
game across not only IndyCar but many feeder
classes and helmets in general across the world.
The Zylon Helmet Strip.
The strips, introduced first by Bell in Formula
One in 2011, are actually made of Zylon, a high-
strength synthetic polymer that Stanford Research
Institute developed in the 1980s. Their use in
conjunction with the FIA’s 8860 “super helmet”
specification was spurred after former Ferrari
driver Felipe Massa suffered injuries in the
Hungarian Grand Prix in 2009 after being struck
by a spring that flew off the Williams Grand Prix
car driven by Rubens Barrichello at that time. The
spring contacted Massa’s helmet in an area which
the Zylon strips now protect, causing him to miss
several months of action while he recovered, he
was to be a very lucky man that’s for sure but the
quest for safety has not stood still thanks this case
to Bell.
It is this Zylon helmet-visor strip that all Indy Car