Are all tires created equal?

Its a good question?

So if you were to ask different people what they think would be the most important thing to make a race car into a championship winning race car, you would probably get many different answers. You may get some people who may say "There is no substitute for horsepower" and they would be right. The engine of the car would be very important. I mean lets face it, without and engine we would not be racing. 

Others may say aerodynamics, and even more would probably say "The driver makes the difference". All of the answers you may receive would probably be right to any certain extent. The reality is in a motorsport series like NASCAR, that is so well run and rules are so well enforced, to gain a competitive advantage would probably be as a result of many different factors. 

NASCAR engines are purpose build these days. The three manufacturers build engines for specific tracks. Short tracks get a specific build, mile ovals another and superspeedways also have engines specifically build for that speedway. 

Cars follow a standard template, every component has to compliant to the smallest variation. You see its very hard to pick one particular thing and say .... "Well that there is the one thing that makes it or breaks it!" However there is one component that all the cars share that no one can race without....... Tires.

....tires can be a huge advantage.....

 

In my opinion in a motorsport series where cars are as closely matched as the cars are in NASCAR, tires can be a huge advantage. So hows that? I mean lets face it the same tires are supplied to every team so where is the advantage? Well let me tell you this little story. 

A couple of years ago my father being an extreme car enthusiast, bought a small German car with a two liter Double overhead cam four valves per cylinder car. At that time the power unit was considered to be the best engineered power unit in the world. It was a performance car.

The car made very good power and being a sports car, it was sprung pretty hard and acknowledged every bump in the road. When the car was pushed to its top speed, as soon as the car reached over 100mph, the steering started shaking and by the time you filled the clock and running a fraction over 150mph you really needed to hold onto that steering. So he thought like most people well its got have to do with wheel alignment or perhaps tire pressures or wheel balancing. The car was fitted with high speed branded performance tires that cost an arm and a leg.

We promptly went to a tire wholesaler and they finished a high speed wheel balance and computer read outs proved it was 100% on the money. Wheel alignment was checked and although a slight problem was picked up and corrected the settings were very close. The last thing they did was check the tire pressures were corrected. Computer readouts in hand we proceeded to go out on the open road and drive seven types of smoke out of that little car. 

Guess what ..... no change. We took it back even scaring the pants off of the tire wholesalers owner by taking him for a top speed run. They checked and checked and just when we thought all was lost, the salesperson who sold my father the car arrived with an identical car to ours. In an attempt to keep my father happy he suggested we swop the wheels of the two cars to see if it will make a difference. I thought well its not uncommon to hear of a bad tire or a tire that has a flaw of some kind. 

.................he told us... "These tires are not round!"  

My father and the salesperson promptly went out for a high speed and the problem was resolved. The dealership paid to have my fathers new car send to a tire expert who worked with a the leading tire manufacturer in their racing program. After we described the problem and he took the car for a spin, he told us... "These tires are not round!" Well we thought this guy was on crack.... I mean how can a round tire not be round? 

He had each wheel removed and placed on a tire shaving machine and continued to shave off the smallest amount of tire. Now for the first time we saw it. The machine has a blade to do the shaving and it is static held in place very firmly and as the tire started spinning and was brought closer to the blade we could see how the blade caught the tire in some areas but not in others. The machine is computer controlled and to our amazement we could now see the tire was closer to being egg shaped than being round. When he was finished though it was perfectly round. To make things worse all four tires had this problem. 

Once done the bad vibrations we were experiencing were gone. Suffice to say Doug Lang made a customer for life that day. So why am I telling you this you may think. Well Its simple. Every tire that gets made ... yes even race tires have sometimes got small imperfections. They may be invisable to the naked eye, but they exist. 

OK so lets take a step back. Tire technology as a whole has come a long way since the 50's and the 60's. Tires last longer, give better traction and are manufactured to much better standards than ever before, we cant even argue about that. Safety is every tire manufacturers main focus. They really strive to make sure their products are safe. 

So remembering the encounter we had with bad road tires I started thinking if it was possible that there could be similar stories in the world of motor racing. The bad news is I didnt have to spend to much time researching. 

..........2005 United States F1 Grand Prix.........

Following a number of tire failures at turn 13 it became painfully evident that Michelin had tire that simply put was not up to the stresses that a banked circuit at Indianapolis was requiring the tires to be able to maintain. The result was that Michelin tried to compromise with the FIA by asking for a chicane to be placed at turn 13 but they were having none of it as they felt it would be grossly unfair to the other Bridgestone runners and turn 13 is a classic turn and a signature of Indy and the result was that two thirds of the field withdrew from the race. Effectively this sunk the F1 race at Indianapolis as the paying crowd reacted in disgust. This incident saw many teams leave Michelin at the end of that season, opting for the slower but safer tire.

Weeks leading to this Grand Prix, Bridgestone had been openly saying that  Michelin were building unsafe tires because they were compromising on the integrity of the sidewalls of the tires to make lighter tires. The Michelin tire gave incredible performance and durability, but as we would see in this race, they were very dangerous. Ralf Schumacher was so badly injured that he could not compete that weekend. 

Michelin did however compensate spectators by refunding them. This however is a total failure and shows what happens when it all goes wrong. 

.....The Best tires in the batch are removed ...... 

I did however find another great piece written by a privateer racing in the 500cc World Championship at the time (Early 90's), now of course referred to as Moto GP.

In this piece he discusses at great length how difficult it is being a privateer in Europe not just racing against the biggest and best teams but also how the odds are stacked up against you even further. He goes onto explain that the tire manufacturer would supply every competitor with the tires required for the race weekend. You go along to their rig and you collect your five sets or what ever the agreed number is. So whats wrong with that? Well as it turns out whats wrong with it is that they would supply everyone, but only after a tire technician had gone through all the tires and the best tires, or lets say the tires chosen by the tire technician as being the best of the batch without any manufacturing flaws had been removed and supplied to the works teams.....  

Apparently the practice was not even being hushed up by anyone, it was common knowledge that the works teams got the best tires, were served first and like he said sometimes you could visibly see the imperfections on the tires. The only way to get around it would be to simply not use the tire. Work out your practice and qualifying with one tire less. 

In his opinion it was near impossible for a privateer to run top 5 positions let alone win. 

I found similar stories in most other forms of racing. The same scenario. The big teams get the best and the smaller teams get the rest. This practice apparently is still ongoing in most forms of racing in most of the world including at the pinnacle of the sport.

..........The question is, How are the tires distributed to the teams in NASCAR?

So this started me wondering, how are the tires supplied and distributed in NASCAR. Is every team told "Come get your tires" or "Here are the tires, take your allotment" or "Here are the tires we have checked for you" Do the top teams get the best and the smaller teams get the rest?

I am happy to say that I now know that NASCAR teams supply Goodyear with the rims and they fit tires to those rims and the team collects. Teams are not allowed to select tires. They have to accept what they receive from Goodyear. One compound is available and all the teams must use it.

Statistics are kept in regards to the percentage of teams that are unhappy with the tires they receive? Information like that is made public. Also I have to mention here that many of the tire failures we see in NASCAR are NOT and I repeat NOT as a result of anything the tire manufacturer is doing wrong, but rather as a result of teams running very aggressive suspension setups that actually cause the tires to fail. In most of these cases the tire manufacturer would have warned the team against that already before the race.Its an open door between the teams and Goodyear and when Goodyear are at fault they admit it and when the teams are at fault they get called on it.

Please let me have your comments or thoughts.