Racerchaser
06-05-2009, 12:52 PM
John, this is your open tire rule. How can a smaller team race with the big boys and be competitive with the open tire rule.
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Josh Richards and the Rocket Chassis house car team compete in scores of events each season, and each time they roll the blue No. 1 on the racetrack, they want the four best tires on the car.
To make sure the four best tires are available — the correct compound, the correct grooving, the correct size, the correct stagger — they must have options. That means when they leave the Shinnston, W.Va., shop, the team's race trailer carries more than 60 tires, making it a virtual rolling tire store. Such massive tire collections are common among all the top-flight Dirt Late Model teams who face the organizational nightmare of classifying tires, loading the right tires for each racing trip and having the correct tires mounted the moment they need them.
(http://dirtondirt.com/video.php?watch=1264)
It's not always a perfect system, says Jimmy Frey, the tire specialist for the 21-year-old Richards. "About once a month we need a tire that's laying on the floor at the shop," Frey said with a shrug. "You can only carry so many."
Frey and other tire specialists — many of the top teams designate a crew member to focus primarily on rubber — have developed intricate systems to manage tire inventories for teams where etires are among the most important equipment.
"That's the only thing between the ground and the race car," said Steve Norris, long-time tire specialist for Hall of Fame driver Billy Moyer.
During Thursday's technical inspection preceding the $100,000-to-win Dream XV at Eldora Speedway, Frey, Norris and others shared their systems for managing tires in two-car haulers where, with the exception of the bays for a pair of race cars, lengthy tire racks make up the largest storage space.
The ability for crew members to put their hands on the exact tire they need the exact moment they need it is crucial in a sport where conditions of the track surface can change from lap to lap. Jesse Kerns, who learned about tires under the wing Scott Bloomquist, knows that all too well in working with the Hall of Fame driver who may not decide on which right rear tire is best until just before the green flag drops. "You better have it ready when he asks for it," Kerns said.
Filling the tire rack
Joe Drake, a crew member for veteran driver Jeep Van Wormer, helps the Pinconning, Mich.-based team keep its massive tire collection organized. Early in the week, two crew members spend a full day unloading and cleaning all the tires from the previous weekend's racing.
Then the team fills up the tire racks in anticipation of the next racing weekend, preparing some ahead of time by using heated grooving irons to former traction-improving patterns in the rubber. For the Dream, Drake said, the tire racks are organized with all the right-rear tires, all the left-rear tires and all the front tires separated to make them easy to find.
It's a solid system if Drake, Van Wormer or another knowledgeable crew member puts tires back where they belong, but by the end of the weekend, tires can be harder to find "when you get other people come and help you and they just throw 'em anywhere," Drake said.
Driver Ray Cook of Brasstown, N.C., says his team tries to stay organized — "we generally do when we leave the shop," he said — although tires can gets shuffled around during a busy weekend with lots of tire changes.
On a typical weekend when Cook is following the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series — a series that allows Hoosier Racing Tires as well as American Racer tires — he fills the permanent tire racks in the hauler with more than 40 mounted American Racers and carries another two dozen on portable tire racks. Generally, Cooks puts the tires in order on the rack from softest to hardest, and it's a system that works well for him.
"The better you can simplify it," Cook said, "the better off you'll be."
In Bloomquist's hauler, Kerns has a two-tiered rack near the side door filled with all the potential right-rear tires the team might use during the Dream weekend. Bloomquist typically chooses a right rear first to set the car's tire stagger — running larger tires on the right side of the car to help the car's handling — and then selects the other three tires based on the choice of the right rear.
Then Kerns turns around to the tire racks on the opposite side of the trailer and organizes the other tire racks by compounds legal for the Dream: Hoosier LM20s (softest), LM40s (hardest) and LM30s (in between). Being able to put his hands on the right tire at the right time is key for Kerns, who gets anxious when he's not sure if the tire the team needs is mounted and ready to go.
"I'm anal about bring prepared because I'm stressed when I'm not prepared," Kerns said.
Master of tire inventory
Moyer's tire specialist, Norris, has made a career of becoming a Dirt Late Model tire expert. Someone less than expert would have a hard time keeping track of more than 400 tires between the team's shop and hauler. And Norris no doubts knows the inventory.
Many teams use white markings on the black rubber so it's easy to identify each tire while it's on the rack. Scrawled on the tire facing is the tire circumference (usually between about 86 inches and 92 inches), the tire compound and sometimes where the tire belongs (RR for right rear, RF for right front, etc.) For instance, a marking for Dream weekend might be "91, LM40, RR."
Norris, however, doesn't rely on any such markings. Because he's done the mounting, grooving, siping and other preparation of each tire, including the 45 or so tires the team brought to the Dream, Norris recognizes every tire by sight.
"I know 'em all," he said, standing between the team's tire racks in the hauler. "Every tire in here and mounted I can tell you what size it is to a quarter inch."
Then Norris proves his point by putting his hand on a series of right-rear tires and reeling off a litany of measurements on either side of 90 inches. "Organization on tires is very important," Norris understated.
For Dream weekend, Norris used this system: harder compounds are on tire racks on one side of the trailer, softer compounds are on the opposite side. On the racks themselves, Norris arranged them by circumference from smallest to largest, meaning the left-rear tires were on the extreme left, the right-rear tires on the extreme right and the front tires somewhere in the middle.
Norris pointed out a variety of a half-dozen left-rear tires, already grooved and prepared, that the team might use when Moyer's No. 21 pulls onto the Eldora racing surface. "You only run one at a time," Norris said, "but you have to be prepared."
Occasionally, the 40 or so tires mounted and ready for action at a moment's notice aren't enough. Teams also carry new tires that haven't yet been put on wheels — Norris called them flats — that take up about half the space of a mounted tire.
If need be, Norris will hurriedly mount a tire, air it up and perhaps groove it to provide the traction needed for a particular track condition.
"Best-case scenario is to have 'em done at the shop and just bolt 'em on," he said, "but you do what you gotta do."
Big money in tires
There are plenty of expenses to operating a big-time Dirt Late Model team, and tires are among them. Perhaps half the more than 100 entrants in the Dream use large haulers that can carry dozens of tires, sometimes as many as 60 mounted tires (Bloomquist's hauler from a few years back could carry as many as 75 mounted tires).
For a team with 60 mounted tires, that's an investment of more than $20,000, estimating tires at about $130 apiece and wheels at $250 each (split between the more expensive beadlock wheels and less experience standard rims).
While Hoosier Racing Tire brings a large truck with plenty of tire choices to sell at a major Eldora event, tires aren't always easy to come by on the road. One reason teams stock up on a variety of rubber is to "have all the bases covered" when the need arises for just right tire tire, said Frey, who talked while preparing a tire the team plans to use in Saturday's 100-lap feature.
"You can't rely on tire trucks anymore" because they're not at every racetrack, Frey said, "So we gotta make sure we have what we need when we leave the house."
Heading for Eldora, Frey said the team prepared sets of tires (A, B, C, D, etc.) the team might potentially use during the weekend.A team would need a minimum of 12 tires to even think about competing through qualifying, preliminary races and the feature event, but Frey had 36 tires prepared to cover the possibility of wetter track conditions (that might require softer tires than normal) or drier track conditions (which might require use of harder tires most of the weekend).
With heat races, consolation races and the feature event held over a four-hour stretch on Saturday night, there's not much time to make last-minute changes and mount tires the team didn't expect to use, Frey said.
Preparing multiple sets of tires is necessary "in order to give us enough options," he said. "Stuff kind of happens pretty fast here on Saturday."
A few minutes later, Frey puts aside a siping tool he'd used the last half-hour or so to prepare one of the team's tires. He laid the tire aside and gave it a look before going on to his next task.
"Hopefully that tire will win a hundred grand," he said.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX
Josh Richards and the Rocket Chassis house car team compete in scores of events each season, and each time they roll the blue No. 1 on the racetrack, they want the four best tires on the car.
To make sure the four best tires are available — the correct compound, the correct grooving, the correct size, the correct stagger — they must have options. That means when they leave the Shinnston, W.Va., shop, the team's race trailer carries more than 60 tires, making it a virtual rolling tire store. Such massive tire collections are common among all the top-flight Dirt Late Model teams who face the organizational nightmare of classifying tires, loading the right tires for each racing trip and having the correct tires mounted the moment they need them.
(http://dirtondirt.com/video.php?watch=1264)
It's not always a perfect system, says Jimmy Frey, the tire specialist for the 21-year-old Richards. "About once a month we need a tire that's laying on the floor at the shop," Frey said with a shrug. "You can only carry so many."
Frey and other tire specialists — many of the top teams designate a crew member to focus primarily on rubber — have developed intricate systems to manage tire inventories for teams where etires are among the most important equipment.
"That's the only thing between the ground and the race car," said Steve Norris, long-time tire specialist for Hall of Fame driver Billy Moyer.
During Thursday's technical inspection preceding the $100,000-to-win Dream XV at Eldora Speedway, Frey, Norris and others shared their systems for managing tires in two-car haulers where, with the exception of the bays for a pair of race cars, lengthy tire racks make up the largest storage space.
The ability for crew members to put their hands on the exact tire they need the exact moment they need it is crucial in a sport where conditions of the track surface can change from lap to lap. Jesse Kerns, who learned about tires under the wing Scott Bloomquist, knows that all too well in working with the Hall of Fame driver who may not decide on which right rear tire is best until just before the green flag drops. "You better have it ready when he asks for it," Kerns said.
Filling the tire rack
Joe Drake, a crew member for veteran driver Jeep Van Wormer, helps the Pinconning, Mich.-based team keep its massive tire collection organized. Early in the week, two crew members spend a full day unloading and cleaning all the tires from the previous weekend's racing.
Then the team fills up the tire racks in anticipation of the next racing weekend, preparing some ahead of time by using heated grooving irons to former traction-improving patterns in the rubber. For the Dream, Drake said, the tire racks are organized with all the right-rear tires, all the left-rear tires and all the front tires separated to make them easy to find.
It's a solid system if Drake, Van Wormer or another knowledgeable crew member puts tires back where they belong, but by the end of the weekend, tires can be harder to find "when you get other people come and help you and they just throw 'em anywhere," Drake said.
Driver Ray Cook of Brasstown, N.C., says his team tries to stay organized — "we generally do when we leave the shop," he said — although tires can gets shuffled around during a busy weekend with lots of tire changes.
On a typical weekend when Cook is following the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series — a series that allows Hoosier Racing Tires as well as American Racer tires — he fills the permanent tire racks in the hauler with more than 40 mounted American Racers and carries another two dozen on portable tire racks. Generally, Cooks puts the tires in order on the rack from softest to hardest, and it's a system that works well for him.
"The better you can simplify it," Cook said, "the better off you'll be."
In Bloomquist's hauler, Kerns has a two-tiered rack near the side door filled with all the potential right-rear tires the team might use during the Dream weekend. Bloomquist typically chooses a right rear first to set the car's tire stagger — running larger tires on the right side of the car to help the car's handling — and then selects the other three tires based on the choice of the right rear.
Then Kerns turns around to the tire racks on the opposite side of the trailer and organizes the other tire racks by compounds legal for the Dream: Hoosier LM20s (softest), LM40s (hardest) and LM30s (in between). Being able to put his hands on the right tire at the right time is key for Kerns, who gets anxious when he's not sure if the tire the team needs is mounted and ready to go.
"I'm anal about bring prepared because I'm stressed when I'm not prepared," Kerns said.
Master of tire inventory
Moyer's tire specialist, Norris, has made a career of becoming a Dirt Late Model tire expert. Someone less than expert would have a hard time keeping track of more than 400 tires between the team's shop and hauler. And Norris no doubts knows the inventory.
Many teams use white markings on the black rubber so it's easy to identify each tire while it's on the rack. Scrawled on the tire facing is the tire circumference (usually between about 86 inches and 92 inches), the tire compound and sometimes where the tire belongs (RR for right rear, RF for right front, etc.) For instance, a marking for Dream weekend might be "91, LM40, RR."
Norris, however, doesn't rely on any such markings. Because he's done the mounting, grooving, siping and other preparation of each tire, including the 45 or so tires the team brought to the Dream, Norris recognizes every tire by sight.
"I know 'em all," he said, standing between the team's tire racks in the hauler. "Every tire in here and mounted I can tell you what size it is to a quarter inch."
Then Norris proves his point by putting his hand on a series of right-rear tires and reeling off a litany of measurements on either side of 90 inches. "Organization on tires is very important," Norris understated.
For Dream weekend, Norris used this system: harder compounds are on tire racks on one side of the trailer, softer compounds are on the opposite side. On the racks themselves, Norris arranged them by circumference from smallest to largest, meaning the left-rear tires were on the extreme left, the right-rear tires on the extreme right and the front tires somewhere in the middle.
Norris pointed out a variety of a half-dozen left-rear tires, already grooved and prepared, that the team might use when Moyer's No. 21 pulls onto the Eldora racing surface. "You only run one at a time," Norris said, "but you have to be prepared."
Occasionally, the 40 or so tires mounted and ready for action at a moment's notice aren't enough. Teams also carry new tires that haven't yet been put on wheels — Norris called them flats — that take up about half the space of a mounted tire.
If need be, Norris will hurriedly mount a tire, air it up and perhaps groove it to provide the traction needed for a particular track condition.
"Best-case scenario is to have 'em done at the shop and just bolt 'em on," he said, "but you do what you gotta do."
Big money in tires
There are plenty of expenses to operating a big-time Dirt Late Model team, and tires are among them. Perhaps half the more than 100 entrants in the Dream use large haulers that can carry dozens of tires, sometimes as many as 60 mounted tires (Bloomquist's hauler from a few years back could carry as many as 75 mounted tires).
For a team with 60 mounted tires, that's an investment of more than $20,000, estimating tires at about $130 apiece and wheels at $250 each (split between the more expensive beadlock wheels and less experience standard rims).
While Hoosier Racing Tire brings a large truck with plenty of tire choices to sell at a major Eldora event, tires aren't always easy to come by on the road. One reason teams stock up on a variety of rubber is to "have all the bases covered" when the need arises for just right tire tire, said Frey, who talked while preparing a tire the team plans to use in Saturday's 100-lap feature.
"You can't rely on tire trucks anymore" because they're not at every racetrack, Frey said, "So we gotta make sure we have what we need when we leave the house."
Heading for Eldora, Frey said the team prepared sets of tires (A, B, C, D, etc.) the team might potentially use during the weekend.A team would need a minimum of 12 tires to even think about competing through qualifying, preliminary races and the feature event, but Frey had 36 tires prepared to cover the possibility of wetter track conditions (that might require softer tires than normal) or drier track conditions (which might require use of harder tires most of the weekend).
With heat races, consolation races and the feature event held over a four-hour stretch on Saturday night, there's not much time to make last-minute changes and mount tires the team didn't expect to use, Frey said.
Preparing multiple sets of tires is necessary "in order to give us enough options," he said. "Stuff kind of happens pretty fast here on Saturday."
A few minutes later, Frey puts aside a siping tool he'd used the last half-hour or so to prepare one of the team's tires. He laid the tire aside and gave it a look before going on to his next task.
"Hopefully that tire will win a hundred grand," he said.