Our county Board of Education has a policy that students are not allowed to drive the vehicle in a race. They are only allowed to drive the vehicle in a "time trial" situation where they are the only vehicle on the track.
It's ironic that high school football seriously injures, paralyzes, and kills more players every year than college and pro football combined, but school districts overwhelmingly support it. Soccer creates more permanent damage to ankles and knees than any other sport in history, but school corporations encourage adding it to the athletics departments. Meanwhile, Electrathon, which has never had a death during a race in its entire history, is shunned by some school districts because of that dirty four letter word - RACE.
Anyway, I didn't have that problem when I was mentoring a team, but I had heard of it in other areas. I'm not sure how to get around it. Possibly set up a meeting with the risk management people in your district and go loaded with statistics. Be sure to emphasize the EA requirements for safety equipment and construction guidelines. You might also site some statistics from the QMA (Quarter Midgets of America). They have been in existence since about 1956; kids from 5 years old up to 16 drive powerful gasoline engine powered race cars at some pretty high speeds and there has never been a death in a race to my knowledge. The parallel here is that our safety requirements are very much like theirs. Good luck.
