Racing 101-Volume
4- May 15th, 2009
Racing 101
Welcome back! I know it’s been a few weeks, but I’ve been terribly busy
with racing. When I started this column I intended to write an
installment every week. That is simply not going to happen. I’ll do my
best to get one out every two weeks for now and maybe once a week once
summer hits.
I’m going to hit on the topic of tires for this installment. I read
Sleepy Gomez’s article about stagger in AARN and it was good,
easy to read information. It is a great article for the average fan and
racer alike. I’m going to fill in the other blanks about tires that he
didn’t tell you about so far.
For most sportsman level teams racing on dirt, new tires every week are
just not in the cards. Tires range from $100 up to about $180 in price
depending on size, class, and the amount the dealer and track tacks onto
the price. Most NJ/DE/Eastern PA tracks have their own molded stamp
right in the tire in addition to the compound (hardness) of the tire.
Typically at these tracks you can only run their tires that are stamped
with the logo or ID of the track. About the only time you can get around
these tire stamp rules is for special midweek shows or when one track
rains out and the other is still open.
I guess I’ll stand on my soapbox for a minute and state that track
stamped tires have added so much to the price of racing it is
ridiculous. Most tracks will tell you that the money brought in from
tire sales either through the track itself or a contracted dealer pays
the point fund. The problem is that most support divisions have such a
poor point fund anyway so support divisions are once again paying for
the purse and point fund for the premier class. As an owner of a support
division car I’d much prefer no point fund or reduced point fund to be
able to run any tire of the same compound. In addition, the stamp requires a team that does any kind of traveling to have several sets of
tires for each specific track and hinders lower dollar teams from buying
used tires from anyone other than a competitor at their own track.
Sadly, this method of revenue development for tracks most likely will
not go away. Tracks have decided that selling tires is going to be a
money maker from them and if you want to play you have to pay. Too many
people are making money at selling track specific tires that I don’t see
this system changing anytime soon.
So..how do you get the most out of your valuable tires? There are a few
tricks in the bag that help keep your pocketbook alive. Once again,
these are simply things I’ve done over the years. They may or may not
work for you…...but they worked for us.
For modified style cars, there are 4 different specific sizes for each
corner. On a sprinter, the fronts are identical and the rears are
different sizes. Your largest is always the right rear, followed by the
left rear, right front and left front. Even on the sprinter you try and
get a bigger diameter tire on the RF than LF. How do you make a tire
bigger? What happens if you need to get 7” of stagger for your specific
track and you only have 6”?
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Trick number one - Put 30lbs of air in it and let it sit in the sun for a few hours. These tires will grow like you won’t believe. They do get a little weird and tend to change sizes a little when you do this, but desperate people do desperate things. The other way to get more stagger is to mount the RR tire on a narrower wheel. This basically makes the tire “stand up” a little more. Of course, you can also go with a wider wheel on the left, but in most cases, this isn’t possible since you’re most likely running the widest rim you can.
Let’s say you need to get another week out of your set. The mortgage is due, the truck needs gas, but you need to go racing next weekend and the tires have some wear.
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Trick number two - Flip them! After a night of racing, a tire will get a feather pattern on it from right to left. You can simply flip the tire so it is rotating in the opposite direction and the side of the tire that faced the outside wall now faces the inside wall. Some tires are cambered from the factory. This means they have a specific inside and outside, and are made larger on the outside to assist with handling. I never noticed a difference when flipped, but that is because we employed trick #3 every week.
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Trick number three - grind them! Some folks say this does nothing; some folks swear by it between every heat cycle…I fall in the middle. Every week with the sportsman modified we flipped and ground the rear tires. How do you grind? Dig $40 out of your pocket and call a parts house like A1 Racing. They all sell a 7” grinding wheel that resembles a torture device. It is a steel wheel with small, sharp boulders on it that can cut through your skin like a circular saw blade. Mount it up to your 7” right angle grinder and just touch the tire to take off the feathering and open up the upper layer of rubber. This is about the nastiest, dirtiest, and dangerous job in the garage. I got very messed up one day when I hit my hand with the torture wheel. There is a method to doing it and it’s best to learn from someone who has some experience. If you don’t do this properly, you will get hurt. We actually made a jig that bolts to an engine stand and spins to assist in the process. It worked wonders in preventing injury.
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Trick number four - driver management. A good driver on a slick track knows that spinning tires burns tires up. Tacky tracks are much, much easier on tires. Slick tracks can take a brand new right rear and turn it into a melted mess in 20 laps. Good set up, good throttle control…and even pulling in can save money. Some may disagree with this statement, but I’ll say it anyway. It’s damn hard to win starting 20th on a slicked off track. I tell my drivers if you’re starting 20th ride around for a few laps and see what happens. If they get strung out quickly, and you are not going to make strides and pick up 10 spots to make it worthwhile, you’re better off pulling in when money is tight. I know from a fan’s perspective this isn’t great, but unless you’re in a points battle or need the experience, the difference between 24th money and 17th money isn’t all that much-if any. I can guarantee that it’s less than that good set of tires and the 15 gallons of fuel you have in the car.
Voodoo trick - I know there are many commercially available and homemade
liquid tire treatments available out there. I’ve never used them and
they tend to be pricey. Most tracks do not allow them, but then again
most have no way of checking either.
Tires can make or break you. You don’t need new skins every week to win.
We proved that last year. You do need to take good care of what you
have, and have a good source of used tires available to you.
Until next time-take care, be good, and go see a race this weekend.
Comments, suggestions, etc can be sent to
stocker1042@hotmail.com .