Hmm, I wonder what this means at one of SowDiv "Rational" races? With National and Regional cars on-track at the same time, does that mean that the cars entered as Regional could legally run the current rain tire whilst those registered as National would have to be on the new rains? That could lead to some "interesting" racing between the groups. Also, I don't envy tech at grid trying to cross-check registration vs. tires.

Ed

Our distributor was out of dries last week...

Ed Cavalier wrote:Hmm, I wonder what this means at one of SowDiv "Rational" races? With National and Regional cars on-track at the same time, does that mean that the cars entered as Regional could legally run the current rain tire whilst those registered as National would have to be on the new rains? That could lead to some "interesting" racing between the groups. Also, I don't envy tech at grid trying to cross-check registration vs. tires.
Ed

That doesn't seem any harder than scoring a multi-class rungroup correctly. If I were running tech, I'd only check all that in the top 5 cars in each "class" after the race, and T&S should have the information on which cars are regional and which are national. To me, only safety items should be checked on grid.

Will the new rains have a different color or pattern of logo on them so they can be told apart from the old ones?

The "grid checks" on items like this are done by tech personnel, not by grid workers. For example, I have to run down to grid to mark tires for formula cars so they race on the tires they qualified on.

However, the "rational" races have not yet been figured out by the communication (or lack thereof) between registration & T&S, and getting a grid sheet to find out which cars are REG and which are NAT might be asking for too much. Heck, I have trouble getting the info so I can calculate regional points!

It might be fun to let the regional racers have the old rains, and national racers have the new - and then just make sure that the top 3 nat finishers are checked for new rains at impound (if any nat racer runs old rains and DOESN'T finish ahead of 3 racers on new rains, he has a bigger problem!)

Duhhh wrote:It might be fun to let the regional racers have the old rains, and national racers have the new - and then just make sure that the top 3 nat finishers are checked for new rains at impound (if any nat racer runs old rains and DOESN'T finish ahead of 3 racers on new rains, he has a bigger problem!)

Oh yeah, nobody will care if you run new rains in regionals, so all you really have to do is check the top 3 national finishers at impound... assuming you can find them

pmiranda wrote:all you really have to do is check the top 3 national finishers at impound... assuming you can find them

Why can't I resist the urge to toss out the dig about "national top 3 finishers go to impound without being asked, but you wouldn't know that"???

I haven't been to a rational yet... I wasn't sure if the top 3 nationals would know who they were and it sounded like the guys in tech wouldn't know... I know both times I've run 3rd I wasn't sure where I was! (The times I've been running 2nd I definitely knew

Ed Cavalier wrote:Hmm, I wonder what this means at one of SowDiv "Rational" races? With National and Regional cars on-track at the same time, does that mean that the cars entered as Regional could legally run the current rain tire whilst those registered as National would have to be on the new rains? That could lead to some "interesting" racing between the groups. Also, I don't envy tech at grid trying to cross-check registration vs. tires.

Ed

The new rains are the same rubber compound as the drys, but with the rain tread. So telling old rains from new rains will be a case of looking at the compound stamped on the sidewall. That and the fact that the new rains wear like the drys. Oh and the Regional guys on the old rains will most likely lap the National guys on the new rains if it rains and stays raining in a Rational

A couple of local SRF drivers got an opportunity to test the new rains this summer. As I recall at Portland they were about 7-8 seconds a lap slower than the old rains. We also ran them for a full dry race and they were just fine. Wear was just like a dry, just a little more "squirming" from the tread pattern. One of the key criteria was that any new rain tire *not* need steward approval to declare rain! The new rains are not faster than drys, but will be a very good choice if in doubt about the weather.

Todd Butler

Sounds like Toyo RA1s. They start as rains, and become slicks once the tread wears down. So worn rain tires are going to become the poor man's dry tire!

See the January TB thread....