Long races- tires

gcashwell

Member
My local track is high grip and 1/5 mile clay. They run Burris 33s. There is an45 lap race coming up with only refueling allowed during caution. Any tips for how to handle this distance? Will tire performance degrade a lot?
 
My local track is high grip and 1/5 mile clay. They run Burris 33s. There is an45 lap race coming up with only refueling allowed during caution. Any tips for how to handle this distance? Will tire performance degrade a lot?

If your tires are good for 20 laps there, they be ok for 45. Why caution for refueling though for a 45 lap race?
 
Agree with Earl IF the tires are right for the current condition there right 45 laps same as normal feature, we've ran 70 lap races Caution FREE where the winner was on soft 11's with low air but they were what the track condition wanted at the time.
 
I'm inclined to disagree with the above but I'm no tire expert.... if the track is hot/dry/high bite and most of the race goes caution free you are going to use up your tires. A 33 if prepping down will likely start giving up after 25 laps.

I've seen it here in Florida with Vegas, Unless you start the race with a harder tire that takes awhile to come in.
 
I'm inclined to disagree with the above but I'm no tire expert.... if the track is hot/dry/high bite and most of the race goes caution free you are going to use up your tires. A 33 if prepping down will likely start giving up after 25 laps.

I've seen it here in Florida with Vegas, Unless you start the race with a harder tire that takes awhile to come in.

Sure a 33 prepped down will give up on high bite but that's NOT the right tire for that application, For high bite on a 33 you would want a cured flat cut little thinner tire punching like 63 that NEVER had any Medium or Harsh prep on it, You missed the key point the tire gotta be correct for the condition.
 
I'm inclined to disagree with the above but I'm no tire expert.... if the track is hot/dry/high bite and most of the race goes caution free you are going to use up your tires. A 33 if prepping down will likely start giving up after 25 laps.

I've seen it here in Florida with Vegas, Unless you start the race with a harder tire that takes awhile to come in.

Ive seen Vegas go 100 laps there in Fl, and if the tire goes for 20, it will go for 45.
The Insane One, no issues there at the 50 lapper i believe, 33s.
 
Actually, the Insane One, while true was on 33s, were all VERY thin and flat cut.
Some had cords BEFORE the feature, most had cords showing afterwards.

Fuel stop is the big difference in my book.
Once you throw that fuel stop in, you're looking at 2 races -- One to the stop, the other to the checkered.
The first half you're on whatever fresh tire you prepared.
The second half, you're on a heat cycled, sealed over tire with no prep (assuming no working of tires on the mandatory red.)
If you're not allowed to work the tires under the mandatory fuel stop, then when you go back to green, those tires will be cold and take a few laps to get rolling again.
That's really ok though, since everyone will be fighting the same issues.
Now, how to circumvent those issues becomes the advantage on the restart.
Internal (yes, in 33s), and keeping the tires warm during the stop - tire warmers, blankets, etc.

Then you throw in all the track variables, car count, etc. Like Ken said, a set of 11s can go the distance if they're right for the conditions. I've also seen tires (33s included) go away much quicker if they were not worked correctly for the conditions.



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A lot of people on 33's that give up automatically chalk it up to over prepped to soft when actually to hard and they run on prep alone for a few laps.
 
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