Quote Originally Posted by drecords View Post
I'd propose we handle the tire deal in the following way:

Everyone runs CMC legal tire for at least R1 and R3 for toyo contingency, and R2 to keep it simple. R4 we re-class the Falkens in AIX and evaluate the 'raceability' of the tires. This has multiple benefits -- namely the Falken cars don't toss all their drops in one weekend, the contingency is as big as it can be for all of us, and we still get to test the 'new' tires.

We need to be clear what the test structured this way will actually test. A single race on Sunday to determine the "raceability" of the tires is great and necessary. Passing that test is important and if they suck at that then more testing isn't required. If they are good to race on, then what? If that's all we are looking to test then there isn't any reason to switch tires. The current tires rock at that, even in their second weekend.


The critical test for any replacement tire is whether the tire degrades with heat cycles. It's my opinion that we would need to prove a tire with two weekends on it is still competitive against a sticker tire in order to move forward. That is a way harder thing to test than whether or not the tire can handle being raced. There are just so many variables that can't really be controlled. We need to control all the variables that we can and then increase the sample size to minimize the effect on our data by the variables that we can't control. At a minimum, we need to test a worn out tire against a new tire. For reasonable testing, we also need a control. Because lap times can vary so much between sessions (and obviously between drivers), we need the same drivers who do the old/new test to also do sessions on equal test tires. To minimize the effect of variables we can’t control, we would be looking for the relative competitiveness between the driver’s when the only variable we changed intentionally is the tires.

In the single Sunday race, if Josh is on old tires and the other testers are on new tires, what does that tell us? If Josh is slower is that because the tires have degraded or that the tires don’t work well with Josh’s suspension setup. If Josh is equal or faster, does that mean that the used tires are still good or is it just that Josh has learned how to race the new tire more quickly than the rest? Sample size is important and with the single race we effectively have a sample size of ½. That’s not enough data to make a decision as big as this. It would be great to have several driver’s switching between old and new over several back to back sessions to get a real picture of the tire’s capability. Maybe we would get more participation later in the season when there are more racers who have blown their season because of mechanical woes or because they came under on the scales by three pounds?

Richard P.