[Bluteam]

So now I have a grand total of four races under my belt as the owner of a sprint car team. I'm also a self admitted lazy person when it comes to decision making on chassis adjustments. Just about the time I was getting comfortable being able to tell my quarter midget drivers what they needed in the setup department, one of them was big enough to tell me "no", and the other just laughed at me no matter what I did.

Having never driven, my story would be that I didn't want to mess up anything for the drivers because of my lack of understanding. So I went with the policy of letting them make the decisions. Tell me what to do, and I can do it. Ask me why the car does what it does, and I'll try and make you believe I know, but the truth was/is, I really enjoyed it when the driver would simply say "don't touch it" or "I don't need tires." I only argued one time about the tire issue, and used a visual aid by showing the driver the cords that were showing through on the tire - and then I pretty much insisted that he let me mount up a new set. Reluctantly, he agreed.

So we're off on this new adventure in sprint cars where everything is bigger, faster, and yes, more expensive - though running a Light AA program in QMA is not for the faint of heart. Of the many questions I asked before we headed out, tire rules was near the top. "Do you have a tire rule?" I would ask.

Now I will admit, that attending our first race and being able to run the inventory we already had was nice. All I had to do was figure out stagger, compounds, and whether or not I was making the right choice in brands compared to what others were running. Truth be told, (but please don't tell the driver this) the only thing I actually did was figure out stagger, and I managed to really screw that up in the heat race. I didn't even look at the compounds or the brand. I was so overwhelmed, he's lucky they were on the right sides. I did try to put a new right rear tire (that's the bigger one) on for the main event, but the driver said no, and as it turned out, I had on the right brand/compound/stagger anyway, so all was well. It should be noted that I did point out to his mother/co-owner the fact that this decision to fore go a new tire for the main event was actually a cost saving move on my part.

Fast forward to the next venue, where the series promoter tells the teams what brand and compound they have to run on both rear tires, and my life just got really simple. This is a setup procedure right up my alley. I can read a stagger tape. Mount up a couple of different sized left rears, and presto, I have time to watch an energetic Australian crew chief going crazy has he sifts through "the swamp" (whatever that is) looking for a different compound to run in their open tire series running the same night. I believe his comment went something like "this is a @#$%^&* nightmare" - but with the Australian accent, I will admit it was hard to tell if he was being serious.

Aside from the fact that I had to account for a fairly hefty tire bill the first night to purchase the spec tires, and mounting tires in 100+ degree heat is no fun at all, I found it much easier the second and third nights knowing that I had one less decision to mess up on. I didn't have to go in the swamp, and thats a good thing, because I don't even know what's in the swamp that could end up biting me. I didn't have to explain to the driver that we had the wrong compound, not that it would have mattered to him, but it was kind of cool to puff my chest out and tell everyone how I was able to make the right choice about something I know very little about.

Which gets me to my point. I must be missing something in this tire thing. Not to diminish the plight of the guy who has been collecting tires for years and has every brand and compound known in the modern day, (and a few from days gone by also), but what is the problem with a series specifying a compound for the rear tires? I don't, won't, can't debate a brand of tire being spec'd - that has it's own issues. But once the brand has been determined, why would there be a problem with a compound - especially if it's a harder compound?

As the topic states - I know I'm missing something. But I like it when things are kept simple.

Fell free to educate me, because information is knowledge. I can't be offended, mostly because I would have to know what I'm talking about in order to try and instill my knowledge, of which I have none, in others on this subject.

A friend once told me - use the KISS method.

Keep It Simple Stupid.

Occasionally I listen.






Green to Checkers,

Ted Hartman





____________________
http://www.TJHartmanRacing.com
Have a nice day. KACHOW!

Good Question, Great post and welcome to sprint car racing. The way see it some Teams or Drivers have tire sponsers, or discounts and if they are not with Hoosier they dont get a discount like they did on their American Racer....Goodyear....whatever it is. IMO it should be a compound rule at a track for a regular show, but if usac or mscs whants a spacific tire and they supply the tire so everybody pays the same price the I dont see a problem with it.

[Knoke77]

Although there are a LOT of varying opinions on spec tires, the original intent was to help keep the costs down on having such a huge arsenal of tires laying around in various compounds. From what I have seen and heard most teams don't have an issue running a spec tire as long as they have a couple vendor choices to choose from. The Hoosier vs American Racer fiasco going on right now is a good example. When I ran we always used American Racer and did receive a slight discount. When running with the MSCS or at Putnumville we would have to get a Hoosier DT3 which we didn't get a discount on from Hoosier. Hoosier is now gobbling up race tracks and sanctioning bodies and putting a hurt on American Racer's business by not being able to offer their spec tire compound as an alternative choice.

Even though the spec tires intention is to help control cost it still causes issues because some teams can buy new tires every night which makes some teams think they are beaten before the feature even starts. We won races on American Racer MC-2's that had 4 or 5 or more races on them.

Ted, I have sent you a private message with some information. Hopefully it contains some info you can use or maybe had questions with.

Good luck the rest of the year!

Jason Knoke

[Charles Nungester]

Having more than one brand is the issue. (If a sanction wants it, Fine. but tracks? SOme teams have the other brands sponsorship and in fact a branded rule COST THEM MORE.

It does cut down on choices, Number of compounds needed to buy, carry ect.

I thought one of the main reasons for the rule was to help make motors last longer by having the cars less hooked up? THAT DIDN'T happen! In fact a couple of shows this year, Honestly, I didn't notice much difference from WINGED RACING AND NON WINGED.

Chuck