This is sad for those that have recently purchased Impact gear.


March, 2010
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.
SFI has also elected to terminate all Contracts of Participation with Impact Racing effective 90 days from March 24, 2010. Under the terms of the Contracts, either party may terminate the agreements without penalty upon 90 days notice. This means that Impact will no longer be able to participate in any SFI programs after this 90 day period.
SFI has taken these actions in the best interests of the safety and integrity of the racing community. This is in keeping with SFI’s mission and purpose.
__________________

 

Looks like Impact is gonna go out of business. Good thing I don't own any of their gear.

 

Damn that's some grimy ish, isnt Impact owned by someone related to "Simpson"?

 

Bill Simpson himself.

SFI better hope they got that one right. I'd imagine there will be a lawsuit involved.

That sucks...they are right down the street and I'd imagine there will be some lost jobs.

 

F-ing pissed, we have full Impact gear, going to make some phone calls right now, full refund better be at the end of it or a class action law suit will follow !!!!

 

wow, what is the world coming too.... i wonder if this will trigger a sfi recall on all uniforms. ****, if one did them with the name of bill simpson, id bet many others would too. i would assume belt mfg, to any sfi cert clothing could be phony. id imagine it would be really difficult to control let alone investigate. the damn chinese can make sfi labels out of used newspaper look like the real thing.

 

Damn that sucks.
Like real bad.

 

Waiting on a call back from Impact HQ right now ...... Will post results

 

Just got a phone call back from Impact ,,,,, They are saying that equipment is fine and will be honored as sfi approved equipment and will be accepted as sfi now and in the future from all sanctioning bodies, They also said they are in talks with sfi at this moment and could not give any other details. A letter will be going out to all registed Impact owners explaining what is going on. ........ as per my conversation with them. I am going to do some more research and post

 

+1 lol

FWIW their display at PRI this year was TINY compared to the year before.

 

wow, something sounds wrong about this. Bill Simpson is the founder of that company and pretty much invented chutes and protective gear for racing.

 

Sounds like this a dispute over money.

Is it an actual issue over the products being substandard or SFI not getting paid?

 

SFI not getting paid

 

im not up on my sfi specs, does this cover harnesses as well?

 

Racing safety is about as big of a racket as insurance.

 

i agree to a point.

what pisses me off is, i only race my car a handfull of times over the year. i had to buy new belts for the fall nats race 08. 09 i only ran fall nats, and wcf. with that said, only 3 races, and when i go to fall nats this year, my belts have only 3 passes on them, are still frikin new for all intents and purposes, but ill have to take them out, return them and get a new set, after 3 passes.

thats what grinds my gears.

 

prices going up on cages, 2 year limits on a seat belt that will last atleast 10 years, making you pay full price to re-certify a cage after its been certed before. The biggest safety racket is NHRA's licensing program. Oh well, I hope you guys with Impact hardware don't have a bunch of useless threads laying around.

 

nhra lic is getting out of hand. membership fees are out of hand.

 

to the top, does this deal cover harnesses as well? if so, hope someone takes them in trade for a cam lock.

 

http://www.sfifoundation.com/PressRelease04-01-10.pdf

got this from the bullet, guess sfi got there money.

 

Wow, that's great to hear. I just bought all new stuff. I haven't even used it yet. The only thing I think will be questionable is the jacket and pants. I bought them in 08. I will have to double check everything and give them a call. I got all fires up over the weekend and had planned on calling SFI and Impact to see about this situation. I feel much better now.

 

Glad to hear it is getting resolved and the racers are not going to be getting stiffed.

Does anyone else get the feel that SFI has a monopoly?

I don't agree with counterfeit anything but the way all this has worked out....................... SFI has lots of power in the racing industry.

 

Yeah man, I think it kinda sucks the way they handled that. I don't know the whole situation from their side, but it seems like a shitty way to do it. I would think that whole situation would hurt business for Impact in a big way. I have talked to several people that have said they would not buy Impact products from now on and I can understand that. I would imagine there could be lawsuits coming in the near future.

 

whats crazy also is i just got a jegs catalog in the mail a few days ago, and not one item from Impact was listed in there, usually there is a whole page of there products. glad to see it get resolved.

 

I cant say much about SFI on here, since we're in the middle of Certification ourselves. But if anyone wants to talk about it, just PM me. LOL.