Quote:
Originally Posted by spankytoo
Let's break this up.
1. Why do we need any tire rules? - We don't. Hoosier bought up all the tracks/series by paying them to enforce a single tire. Then subsequently raised their prices for the people buying the tires.
2. Why do we care what the hell what somebody does to their tires? - If all the big teams are doping tires and getting away with it, the locals will rarely compete. Doping tires is expensive and requires a lot of time. Most teams cannot afford it.
3. Why is competition not allowed in the sale of sprint car tires? - See #1. Hoosier bought everyone up. I hear it's like $25 per car to the track owner??
Good year is out. American Racer is almost out. Having a single tire company and allowing doping will continue to drive out most if not all of the middle and low class sprint car teams.
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Let's not forget the key point here. If #1 and #3 went away, there would be no need for #2.
I honestly don't understand how the racers, teams, tracks, and sanctioning bodies haven't figured out that Hoosier's bribe money hasn't saved anyone a dime. Maybe there's more under the counter payoffs that most don't get to see. Go back 20-30 years and Hoosier was a relatively equal competitor to McCreary (American Racer) and Goodyear. Tire doping wasn't needed, because there was a compound available from one of these companies that did what the racers and teams were wanting it to do. Hoosier actually had to try to create a superior or comparable product in order to compete in the open market. Fast forward to today and Hoosier can basically put out whatever junk spec tire they want because they have no one to compete with. Instead of spending money on developing a superior tire that teams wanted to buy, they spent that money on buying their monopoly and never improving their product. In most other businesses, the open market brings the best products to the top. In the racing tire business, you now end up with whatever Hoosier sends you because their competitors can't or won't pay enough in bribe money to show you they have a better product.