The combined effect of heat and carbon monoxide on the performance of motorsport athletes

Two of the major stressors endured by a motorsport athlete (MSA) during a r acing event are the effects of heat and carbon monoxide. To date, there has been little research into their combined effect on driving performance. Us ing an interactive racecar simulator located within an environmental chambe r, subjects drove a simulated race (60 min) in environmental conditions sim ilar to those chat develop during a NASCAR Winston Cup oval track race (50 degreesC ambient temperature and 10-12% carboxyhaemoglobin levels). Subject s also completed cool (20 degreesC) and heat only (50 degreesC) race simula tions. During the simulations, oxygen consumption, heart rate, core and ski n temperatures and psychomotor performance were measured. The results demon strated that exposure to a racecar micro-environment combining both heat an d CO produced significantly greater (P < 0.05) sweat loss and core temperat ure change (1.53 kg; 1.06<degrees>C) when compared to the heat only (1.14 k g; 0.73 degreesC) and cool conditions (0.35 kg; 0.09 degreesC). Furthermore , a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in psychomotor performance was also sho wn between the heat/CO condition (contact points = 38); and both the heat o nly (25 points) and cool conditions (22 points). It follows that lengthy ex posure to these two stressors could produce a substantial decrement in driv ing performance, thereby endangering the MSA and other race competitors. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.