The dirt track race car we ran in California had an idiot light- - - -actually an oval red clearance light for an 18 wheeler- - - -mounted right in the driver's line of sight as he looked over the hood. A 3" diameter oil pressure gauge was mounted on one side of it, and the same size temp gauge was to the left. The light was wired to a pressure switch that turned it on at 20 PSI or below. In a hard left turn the light would flicker, but if it came on steady the driver could glance at the gauge to see what was going on. As the engine builder, I'd rather lose a race occasionally than hand grenade a $12K engine because the driver didn't look at the gauges often enough.
Jerry
