Street tires in IT? My Review

[Chip42]

guys - this is ALL about midpack guys in large fields. no one is suggesting from my camp that the streets are as fast or capable as Rs. if they do they are looneytunes.

shaving etc... only becomes defacto norm when you require people to run these things. leave it optional, and the guys who choose to run them will do so for the cost savings, not a lower bar trophy. you make sure of that with culture (see IT7 guys in NE) and NOT having a recognized championship for IT ST.

cost savings of streets vs takeoff Rs (all that some of us can afford to run on a regular basis) is actually negative, you'll pay more for a set of new streets than for the equivalent number of races' worth of used Rs in many cases. but the increased consistency and reliability of the streets makes that cost worthwhile, IMHO.

Ron's analysis is pretty good - but a lot of the tire wear is car and track dependent, so not apples to other's apples. either way, streets offer a way for the guy who ISN'T running at the pointy end for whatever reason to run on the cheap. they are already legal, so there's no reason NOT to run them in that case. all my effort is doing is trying to get a small group in a large field to agree to keep the relative bar level by ALL switching over and identifying themselves as having done so. (keep in mind we run 12-20 ITB cars on a regular basis in CFR, and similar numbers of A and S with R at ~5-10.) this is not a trend setting initiative. we aren't trying to show the rest of you the light. it's really more of a way to afford more seat time to develop skills or just enjoy Door to Door racing at the level one such racer can afford.

as I said before - I really hope these tires DO NOT become the norm, at least in club racing. the norm in that experience effort they talked about last year? sure, fine, whatever.