Drivers/Teams - Please answer the following questions for me:
1) What do you do with tires that you have used, especially those that are used up?
2) If there was an option to rid yourself of the used tires at the track (legally) for a small fee ($2 to $3 tire per tire), would you use it?

Needing this for a project I am working on, and needing your true answers. Thanks in advance for your help - Carla!

1). Typically the tires will either get dismounted and left at the track or carried home dismounted and occupy space in the shop.
2). I would definitely utilize a service that would dispose of them legally for a nominal $2 to $3 fee. The hard part would be making it easy to interact with the person coordinating the effort. For eample figuring out which tracks offer the service and who is the point person that you would give the tires to and pay this fee.

Thanks Carla. I appreciate your efforts in looking into an options for the racer.

I just take mine to one of the tire dealers in town, pay for the service, and be gone, someone doing it trackside would be great, but also probably more expensive. I don't know if the feds count tires or not, bet they do!

Would be nice if you could coordinate with the on site vendors and have them build the cost into the price of tire like tire shops do. I’m glad that someone is trying to address the issue!

After working on concrete for 35 years i wonder if the used up tires could have a use as work mats in the shop. Cut the sidewalls off, cut it across the middle and see if it will lay flat after some time. Might be nice to stand on if you are working at a welding table or work bench for some time.

Don't laugh but I have a RR out front w/ flowers in it, I filled it w/ mulch & dirt, I had Marigolds my neighbor thought were Mums. Others we just cut out side wall, then in 3 pcs, the tread I've used on my push vehicle, my son used a tread a tree wrap when off roading. DNR gets really mad you don't wrap a tree to winch yourself out. Other treads just roll'em up & throw away in a bag

We pay a couple of bucks per tire for the local tire shop to take them away.

We would use a service at the track. We don't generally dismount tires at the track, but it would be easy to throw a few in the trailer from time to time and bring them out to drop off.

Wish i had a tire grinder they would be perfect for playgrounds as no metal wires hanging out

The used tires we get are the ones where the team chose option 1 in the first post above..

"1). Typically the tires will either get dismounted and left at the track..."

In the past when we are cleaning the garbage out of the pits every Saturday we would take the weekly tire 'donations' and put them into a pile. That pile would grow.. and grow.. and grow. Usually 5-10 tires per week - 20 or more for a Midget or Late Model show. And we'd take pictures of us picking up your tires and post them on Facebook and the post would fill up with "Who Would Ever Do Such A Thing?" etc. and for a few weeks the tire donations would lessen but eventually pick back up. We'd just hope the area EPA lady didn't ever drive through the race track... and then about time for the County Fair every year we'd have to pay someone to haul 2-300 tires off at $3 a pop and they are all filled with water and muddy and quite the pain in the butt to deal with.

So now we just allocate time every week on cleanup day to cut them up and dispose of them so we don't get the huge tire pile. Until the garbage people decide not to take them.

I'm not trying to cry too loud - but please choose an option other than to leave them behind at a race track. I'm happier when I come upon a dirty diaper laying on the ground on Saturday morning than I am a Right Rear.

One of the upsides to running a Lightening Sprint, is that we use our tires for about half a season, then sell them to the low budget teams for $40 each. They get to use them a while, and I don't have to deal with disposal.