The retired engineering professor created a safety device that is used around the world in different auto-racing sports. His invention is the reason for his induction into the The Sports Car Club of America’s Hall of Fame.
Hubbard, despite his contributions to the field, has never raced a car in his life.
Prior to his work at MSU, Hubbard worked at General Motors for six years and learned about car safety.
His tie to the issue is a personal one.
Hubbard’s brother-in-law, Jim Downing, was a race car driver when he lost a good friend in the racing world. In 1981, Downing’s friend, Patrick Jacquemart, died in an accident during a test session.
“He did not want to die that way,” said Hubbard.
After Jacquemart’s death, Hubbard and Downing created a device that would protect race car drivers in the case of a crash.
The Head and Neck Support device, or HANS, supports the neck and the torso of the driver, creating a stable support to protect from injury.
“It addresses the most common reason that race drivers were dying,” Hubbard said.
When race cars crash, the body is pulled back and the neck goes forward, exposing the neck to a fracture or break.
The HANS device works to limit the movement of the neck and head areas during impact.
“(In a crash) you want to keep the head close to the torso,” Hubbard said.
Hubbard and Downing split their work on the HANS. Hubbard worked on the scientific research while Downing oversaw the business side.
The process of creating HANS was a difficult one because of the lack of financial aid and the time-consuming development process.
Hubbard and Downing were both working at their day jobs and spent their after hours on the creation of the device.
The project was financed with the money Hubbard made in his full-time job as a professor at MSU and as a consultant of car safety.
What started with the production of only 250 HANS devices, now is a business that has created more than 200,000 of the safety devices and is a requirement in many racing competitions around the world.
Hubbard and Downing were inducted to the The Sports Car Club of America’s Hall of Fame on March 8 in a ceremony in Charlotte, N.C.
