[DAD]

Just walked in the door after racing in western Indiana. It wasn't too good a night for us. You might say we had a bad tire day. Just 20 miles from leaving the house we blow out a trailer tire and tear up a trailer fender. We got these pit stops on the side of Interstates down to about 14 minutes now so we didn't loose too much time on that one. Well we found the track just fine. We were running second with 10 laps down in the feature when Doug managed to find the only unpainted tire turn marker on the entire track and ran over it (sure hope the DOJ isn't reading this).

We bent the front axle. one front wheel half and center, probably the spindle and drag link and on top of all that looks like we messed up one of them hard find steering boxes. We can take the axle and steering box over to AJ's and put them in his crankshaft straightener and fix them up good as new, Machine the center back to straight, send the shock off to ARS and have them repair it and probably up date it while it is there. That leaves us buying a new a spindle, drag link and wheel half. That I hope is about $450.00 or so to get back on the track plus my labor @ .25 cents per hr. My labor has not inflated like everything else has. For a non Do It Yourself type racer it would be closer to $1500.00 to $2000.00 to get back racing.

Driving home trying to stay awake while Doug is snoring on the other side of the seat, dodging 18 wheelers because I am holding the speed down to 60 MPH because we don't have any more spare trailer tires and listening to my favorite chamber music on some local FM station I got to thinking about what kind of track would I prefer to race on. Did I like those big white loader tires or did I like a track with a berm to define the turns?

We started racing at Salem's famous Wonder Valley Speedway. That is the little 1/5 th mile dirt track located in the 4H fair grounds in Salem Indiana. The guy who ran the track was named Steve Smith. Steve worked on heavy equipment and also operated them. He had an old Army Surplus World War I road grader. I have never seen a piece of equipment that was that old and still worked. Come to think about it Steve was the only guy that could make it work. Steve loved getting on that old grader with a cooler full of beer beside him and farm his race track. Steve was old school and spent hours farming that little track and always had a beautiful berm on the inside of his track marked with a lime stone marker line at the top of the berm. If you wanted to get on Steve's bad side just put a wheel or two on his berm. We spent a lot of time on his bad side.

Looking back I sure did like them berms. A good driver can use them to their advantage, aka the Swindell's at the Chili Bowl. The rest of us can use them sometimes, and very seldom would a berm do too much damage to a race car. Open wheel cars and Loader tires just don't work too good together. Them tires seem more like big old Packmen's, they just suck them open wheels right into them and don't let go.

My poll is as a racer or a race fan would you rather race on or watch a race with the turns marked with Berms or with Loader tires?

Honest Dad himself

[TQ29m]

DAD, I prefer the berm, having had my night end early with an encounter with a loader tire, amazing how much damage one of those things can inflict on an open wheel car, on several occasions, even got turned over by a danged old 13" tire one night, tires is bad business, altho I don't remember having that much trouble with 15" Indy car tires, Bill Puterbaugh brought a load of them down to Columbus one year, when Billy was running go-karts there, they were light enough that they weren't that big an issue, just a bit tall to see over, kinda funny how you get to know which ones are trouble, we had an old snowgrip there for years, that I'll guarantee you could cause you to cry, it was absolutely the most aggravating tire I ever saw, it was like it was staked to the track! Trailer tires will ruin your night too, I don't think they make a good one anymore, I call them "may-pops", may pop at any time! Bob

[Rpracing1]

Tires definitely........Seem too many guys cheat with a berm..........If you hit a tire , it is your own fault..............JMO

[sprntr]

Absolutely asinine to put any object that out-weights the cars on or near the track. Might just as well park the push trucks along the inside edge of the track!

steiny

[DAD]

Originally Posted by Rpracing1 Tires definitely........Seem too many guys cheat with a berm..........If you hit a tire , it is your own fault..............JMO

Rp

I don't know about cheating but sitting in Tulsa in the turn 2 bleachers many times and watching Sammy work that berm is like watching someone creating a work of art to me. I mean he was on the exact same spot lap after lap, he is the true"Bermmiester" in my book.

Honest Dad himself

[Tony Barhorst]

A really good topic DAD...I read with interest. #safety

[DAD]

Tony

Berms also have bad features. They hold water after watering the track. They are a little harder to put in when cutting in the track, and they are easily abused by overzealous racers. Best I can remember Steve's rule was 2 tires coming out white OK, 4 tires you would be scored back one position, unless dodging an accident for safety.

With a light open wheel race car you sure aren't going to abuse a loader tire, they are very expensive wrecks, usually worse than banging wheels with another car. Now them old heavy fendered cars they being a bit heaver and without them wheels sticking out can sometimes brush right on by them things.

We had a great time last night, the guy gave us a very nice racy race track, and I couldn't believe the crowd he had in that place. He is doing a supper job over there and I can't wait to go back.

It might take a little more time but it would sure be considerate of track owners if they were to move those tires in 6 feet or so for the open wheel races and mark the turns with a little lime, and set forth some rules dealing with the lime lines. Open wheel drivers all pride them selves with their abilities to keep their race cars under control. Doug and I discussed his tire this morning. It wasn't a big white loader tire but a smaller Black unpainted tire, something on the order of a front tractor tire, and we think that somebody on the proceeding lap might have knocked it out into his groove and it just jumped out and bit him.

Many tracks don't deal with open wheel cars on a weekly basis and perhaps don't realize just how delicate these things are. The purpose of my post is to maybe draw their awareness to something I think is not even thought about by anyone but the open wheel racers.

There aren't many Steve Smiths left these days and I know all about how hard those things are to maintain, he told me on several occasions. One time to prove his points to the racers he cut a two foot berm in both turns and dared them to ride over it, that got their attention.

Honest Dad himself

[Jonr]

Originally Posted by Rpracing1 Tires definitely........Seem too many guys cheat with a berm..........If you hit a tire , it is your own fault..............JMO

Agreed. The other issue with berm's is that as more and more people are "hooking the berm" the more and more dust and dirt is sent onto the track which usually takes away from the racing surface, and the more and more dust is sent up into the air.

[sprntr]

I prefer car tires half buried so you have a scallop effect. Shouldn't tear anything up but will upset the chassis due to the unevenness. Semi tires buried will flip a car, but car or sprint car fronts have some give.

steiny

[slick01]

Tractor tires have no place at all around a race track.