In a sport where safety is of utmost importance, Toyota Racing Development (TRD), along with partners like Max Papis Innovations (MPI), is at the forefront of innovating ways to improve overall driver safety.
One of the most recent areas of focus has been the Funny Car steering wheel. An invention that was created decades ago but never really modified has been the center of attention since TRD and Richard “Slugger” Labbe, TRD engineering manager, entered into drag racing.
TRD is Toyota’s in-house racing division, focusing on performance and tuning for the automaker. TRD has a history in motorsports that goes back over two decades, and Labbe joined the team in 2017 with the mentality of bringing some of the NASCAR technology into the NHRA scene through the Toyota-backed teams.
“For the first four to six weeks, I didn’t say much; I just observed, and I quickly understood that I didn’t need to worry about clutches and engines because that’s what the crew chiefs do,” explained Labbe. “So we started to worry about things outside the frame rails, tires and chassis and just bodies and aerodynamics, driver safety, and using some of my knowledge from being in NASCAR for 35 years to bring over to this sport. We’ve slowly rolled into that into the engineering support. We have a different mindset, but we put science behind it and technology to make the best recommendations for any aspect of a race car.”
One of the components that stood out to Labbe was the safety of the drivers and TRD has taken a different approach.
“We’ve worked with Bell Helmets to get drivers helmets,” said Labbe. “We’ve come in with some of the NASCAR technology with the head surround foam and the ‘knee knockers,’ the foam between the knees to prevent the knees from banging together.”
The butterfly steering wheel was next up for evaluation. Given his history with Max Papis, Labbe reached out to the legendary racer and innovator to collaborate on a new invention.
“The butterfly steering wheel has been around for many, many years, and the drivers basically just put up with it because that’s all there was,” said Labbe. “So, I had a conversation with Max Papis from Max Papis Innovations and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about creating a steering wheel for NHRA and a different coupler?’”
The coupler is where the steering wheel attaches to the steering column to put the steering wheel off and on.
“What [the drivers] had was a coupler that was really, really loose fitting and would move around a lot,” added Labbe. “So just imagine driving a car at 330 miles an hour, and the steering wheel is moving around with a quarter-inch play. We said, ‘Look, let’s get better in this area.”
Papis was excited to jump on board the project as he and MPI are passionate about motorsports and driver safety. As a matter of fact, Papis started working on the concept with Cruz Pedregon about five years ago.
Papis, who has competed in several top-level motorsports events, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Formula 1, as well as NASCAR, IndyCar, and IMSA, founded MPI out of the necessity for driver safety.
“I have known Slugger for 20 years – a technical person that can give me some technical input,” said Papis.”I have had a long relationship with Toyota and TRD since I was a little kid because I was the first Toyota driver in IndyCar. I know that they’re super innovative.”
Papis explained that MPI was never meant to be a business but rather just a means to meet an end. What started in his garage after Papis broke both of his wrists during a NASCAR test session, using what he called a “very old, stiff, antiquated steering wheel.”
Now, MPI has evolved into the market leader in motorsports steering wheels in the U.S., which are made in his factory in Italy.
“The idea for the Funny Car steering wheel spiked from my IndyCar days, from my experience in Daytona and Le Mans, and I decided to come up with a safer, better product,” he added.
The new product, known as the B-Fly steering wheel, encompasses some of his IndyCar steering wheel features.
“The B-Fly has innovated safety because it’s padded – it has a foam injection that protects the driver during impact and has the deformation factor,” explained Papis. “The ergonomic hand grip, like a pistol grip, will prevent [Todd’s] hands from slipping. Then we worked on the covering because, as they told me, you need a cover that has grip but not too much grip because you don’t want the car to move right and left.
“The butterfly they have nowadays is basically almost two plates. We felt that that was not a very safe thing to have around your body when you crash or when you drive,” continued Papis. “We kept the original concept of what the butterfly is, but if you look at the bottom, it’s padded all around.”
Todd, who has been testing the wheel for about two years now, has helped out with the process from the beginning.
“It started out as a 3D-printed steering wheel concept, and I just sat in the car with it,” said Todd. “The guys at MPI would compare different sizes to the butterfly steering wheel that I had at the time. Then they eventually got one mounted up and ready to go, and I started testing it last year and have been using it ever since.”
For Todd, who thanked Papis and the MPI for their patience and working with Kalitta Motorsports, calls the B-Fly a “game changer.”
“When these things drop a cylinder down track, you really got to crank the wheel a lot to try and keep the car straight, and with the old configuration, I would get kind of maxed out having shorter arms and not have as much leverage,” explained Todd. “The new wheel itself is thicker which allows me to have a better grip on it.
“It’s more straight on like a dragster, so I feel like I have more leverage when it comes in those situations where I really got to get after the steering wheel down track when it drops a cylinder and spins the tires and things like that,” he added.
The B-Fly has piqued the interest of other Funny Car drivers, and Todd takes the time to educate them, especially about the coupler modification that has been made.
“The coupler itself is a game changer compared to what we have with the butterfly. It takes a lot of the ‘slop’ out of the steering,” said Todd. “We want these things to be extremely positive when you go to make a correction. You want the car to move with whatever direction your hands are going, and with the old setup, there’s a lot of play, a lot of ‘slop,’ so when you’re going to make corrections, there might be a split second where it takes that time for the car to react to what you’re telling it to do.
“Where now, it’s pretty positive. We had to make adjustments to the steering, putting different steering arms on to try and slow down the steering. That’s how much better it made it going from the old configuration to this new setup,” Todd continued.
“It prides me to see what we’ve done. Slugger and J.R. have been amazing to work with because Slugger and Toyota are very innovative,” said Papis, who has also worked with Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson and former Pro Stock driver Tanner Gray on developing another drag racing wheel.
TRD continually pushes forward with new safety innovations – Labbe fondly refers to Todd as the “crash test dummy” whenever they bring him a new idea to try, he is always more than willing to jump on board.
“Many drivers have the mindset that I’m only in it for four seconds, right? But a lot can happen in four seconds. So we try to have the mentality of let’s make sure that you’re comfortable inside the car, your seat posture, you’re sitting in the car in a proper way, your posture is correct, you have the lightest, safest helmet, you have the best foam around you to protect you in a crash or a tire shake,” said Labbe, who is happy to take the driver safety focus off the crew chiefs so they can concentrate on tuning the car.
Furthermore, MPI’s introduction of the B-Fly has caught the interest of Pro Stock and Pro Mod drivers, among other classes.
The new steering wheel is set to be available to the public later this year.
This story was originally published on August 27, 2024. 
