Over the past six weeks, Riverhead Raceway officials have
been aggressively addressing the issue of treating tires. Their
discussions have included personnel from Hoosier, NASCAR
officials, USAC officials and personnel from various race
tracks. This was partly the result of Riverhead Raceway
competitors questioning the tire issue. It is expected that the
new policy for checking tires will, indeed, result in a level
playing field for all teams.
Beginning at square one, Riverhead Raceway officials visited
the raceway’s Hoosier tire distributor and took durometer
readings on roughly 150-200 tires. This included tires from all
divisions. Both the temperatures of those tires and the
durometer readings were recorded. Additionally, tires were
placed in the sun, and their temperatures and durometer readings
were recorded as well. This process laid the groundwork for the
new policy that will be in place regarding tires at Riverhead
Raceway in 2008.
On Saturdays, the officiating staff will be mounting several
tires on rims and airing them up at the Hoosier truck. It will
not necessarily be one tire for each division; rather, the
decision will be made each Saturday as to what tires will be
placed on rims. Those “sample” tires will sit at the Hoosier
trailer, just as they would in a competitor’s pit area.
Periodically throughout the course of the day, officials will
put a durometer to the sample tires and record the readings.
Competitors are actually being encouraged to do the same, as
those tires will be available for any competitor in that
division to come over and check with their durometer for a
reading. Additionally, officials will be walking through the pit
area periodically obtaining readings from competitors’ tires.
Officials will be taking readings from approximately ˝” to 1”
from each shoulder and from the center of the tire, and the
reading will be the spike when the durometer is first placed on
the tire.
At the conclusion of practice, the officials will confer with
one another to establish a fair and reasonable durometer reading
that they feel is an accurate and fair representation of the
readings that have been taken for the day. That will be the
track spec for tires for that night. That number will NOT be
announced, as all competitors will have had a chance to test the
sample tires all afternoon and to test any tires they purchase.
Tires will be tested by the officials as the cars go on the
track and as they come off, at the discretion of the officials.
Additionally, the officials reserve the right to randomly select
any competitor in the field and request that they dismount one
or more tires following the race. This may be any car in the
field, regardless of that competitor's finishing position.
The officials have stressed that the tires they have tested
so far have been very consistent in their readings. Therefore,
any competitor who does find an extremely soft tire is
encouraged to notify track officials, and they are discouraged
from purchasing that tire because it probably would not meet the
track specs for that day.
The program will be flexible and will encourage all
competitors to compare what they are buying to the test tires so
they know where they stand. Not every division will have tires
mounted but the officials have baseline readings for tires for
every division and will continue to check all tires.
Finally, when the distributor purchases a new batch of tires
those tires will be tested and a new sample tire will be mounted
for all to test and compare in order to avoid claims that the
new mold or batch of tires are very soft.
Source:
Riverhead Raceway Officials
Posted:
April 28, 2008