Jr. champs with grooved tires

chromejunkie

New member
are there any big races where they don't have a maxis or burris tire rule? We would like to travel and run some big races but you guys scare us to death when we hear that you must have 10-15 sets of prepped and cut tires to run any where that is anything. we run the grooved hoosier tires and burris tires and no matter how much you work them they don't change. so does anybody know of any races where we could take these kids to race on a large scale
 
I own a small track in pleasant plains Arkansas and we race at s couple tracks in hot springs Arkansas outlaw valley and big root speedway
 
I'll probably be ridiculed for this one, but I just don't understand why treads are not more widely used. Before some of you say it, yes I understand that on most of today's tracks, especially in lower horsepower classes, slicks are faster because they don't lug the motor down and keep the kart more freed up. I get that. My thing about treads is, that it can open up more than one useable groove on the track. So much of kart racing today is freight train, follow the leader fashion. At the tracks where treads are being ran locally (chromejunkie's track being one of them) you will see 2, 3, and at times 4 wide racing on a weekly basis. I guess I'm just the oddball here, but I would MUCH rather race 2,3,and 4 wide, while being able to use most, if not all of the racing surface if needed, rather than go a couple tenths a lap faster playing follow the leader. 20-25 years ago, treads were the norm and I think the RACING was better. It wouldn't bother me if most, if not all tracks mandated treaded tires. Again, would they be ever so slightly slower than slicks in most cases? Possibly, but IMO the overall quality of racing would be MUCH better. Fire away...........
 
I'm kind of on the fence with this being required to run treads I like the fact that my rr still has the tits on it after a dozen races. and I don't have to prep. but as far as the racing being better in the lower hp classes a smart driver isn't going to put himself 4 wide no matter what tires and track condition he is on. it just doesn't work. the thing I don't like about the treads is the fact that the sizes are different then what karts are designed to run on now and it's tough to keep the kart free enough to not lose corner speed. I can give you a perfect example. We ran a big show here a while back track was awesome and we didn't have enough karts to make a class so we mixed a few classes that are close .so we ran a speedway midget , kind of a 1/4 midget with a kt100 on it they ran slicks , we ran our winged outlaws with bp clones and treads. in the practice and heat races I was able to win just by a hair then when the track really started to bite up for the main he lapped us.this was after I moved my rr out an inch and running 20# in my right side tires I was still tight as could be. guys are going to do whats fastest heck even the asphalt tracks I ran where you could run the top and make it stick it still wasn't the fastest way around so nobody went up there
 
We can argue the merrit of grooves vs. slicks all day and I've heard all of them slicks are faster, slicks are better for set up etc. etc. etc. I'm not talking about any of that I choose grooves so I don't have to worry about prep, cutting, and all of that time consuming expensive stuff my kart is fre and loose on treads being tight is not an issue I just want to be able to race without having to get a degree in tire technology and a bank loan for new maxxis, burris, dunlop, vega tires (whichever tire manufacturer paid the track to make a tire rule) I don't want to force anyone else to run hoosiers I jsut want to be able to run the kart with what I have and understand and that is grooved tires
 
We can argue the merrit of grooves vs. slicks all day and I've heard all of them slicks are faster, slicks are better for set up etc. etc. etc. I'm not talking about any of that I choose grooves so I don't have to worry about prep, cutting, and all of that time consuming expensive stuff my kart is fre and loose on treads being tight is not an issue I just want to be able to race without having to get a degree in tire technology and a bank loan for new maxxis, burris, dunlop, vega tires (whichever tire manufacturer paid the track to make a tire rule) I don't want to force anyone else to run hoosiers I jsut want to be able to run the kart with what I have and understand and that is grooved tires
Well then honestly you're SOL. These big races that you'd like to attend usually have a maxxis, Burris, vega, Firestone etc. type tire rule and unless you want to pony up the funds to buy the correct tires then you're simply not going to be able to race.
 
Well then honestly you're SOL. These big races that you'd like to attend usually have a maxxis, Burris, vega, Firestone etc. type tire rule and unless you want to pony up the funds to buy the correct tires then you're simply not going to be able to race.

X2

Even if there was a big race or series that REQUIRED treads, you would still need to have new sets, and various sets prepared at different levels.

We have played with treads a little bit here on a certain type of kart in PA.....there IS substantial speed to be had with cutting/prepping treads. Its no different then a slick.
 
Chromejunkie you Don't have to have 15 sets of tires . Have about 3 sets that will service you different track conditions ie; soft for wet or cold like your track was before thanksgiving , a set for med track and than set for hard fast tracks . You need to talk to a guy in Searcy Dennis James he has the advance auto parts store there they ran Champs for many many years and his daughter was a driver for Rage champ karts and won several hundred races all over the south . His daughter Jesse won 4 or 5 nationals and Arkansas , missouri tenn state championship . He is a nice guy who really knows tires and set up on champs
 
Chromejunkie, I agree, I don't want to mess with tires. In this area (Omaha), all of the champ classes run a treaded tire and are not allowed to use prep. There are two indoor races during the winter in Lincoln, here is the next one coming up.

http://www.kartshootoutpromotions.com/

I am VERY happy not having to deal with tire prep!
 
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