Asking Don Moore a question about the Chili Bowl just doesn't seem right.

Like putting mustard on apple pie.

Like going to a Baseball game and having a Croissant instead of a hot dog.

Like going to an opera house to see Larry the Cable guy.

Like, well, like seeing Don Moore at the Chili Bowl.

Far be it from me to question either Jerry or Don but when IRS ran at Angell this year many of those folks had year old tires on the right rear and even older on the other corners. IRS is a sportsman type midget but they seemed to go plenty quick enough to heat up a tire. Maybe its not comparable at all but it sure got my attention as a possible way to cut costs. As I understand it they run a spec hard American Racer or Mickey Thompson on all 4 corners.

Forgive me here, but when I think about midget parts that cost too much, tires are not the first things that come to mind. I understand that for a car owner every single expense is important, but isn't the ridiculous cost of midget engines a bigger concern at this point?

Tires are a huge cost since they are a continual cost, whereas you run a motor for more than one night with the frequent freshen but you don't use more than one motor a night, unless you blow up.

Well, obviously.

I was thinking more along the lines of $50,000 for four cylinders and running for pennies, by comparison.

What's it cost to freshen??
After how many races??
:dologob:

I don't claim to be an expert on any of this but I have posted some suggestions from time to time on how to cut expenses. The major problem with midgets is that USAC in particular, and I have to cite them because all the other orgs are monkey see monkey do puppets, has allowed all the fancy stuff to get so far out of hand that it would take some radical changes to put things back into perspective. Right now midgets are runaway trains. For example, expensive carbon fiber is allowed, super expensive titanium parts, $40,000-50,000 engines and $$$$$$$$$ to rebuild them, electronic ignitions (which open the door for traction control) etc etc.

I recently bought several tires for the indoor races at $170 a piece. Plus the fact that if you want to race pavement, plan on having another purpose built car at $50,000+. And spend about $2500 in tires for one evening.

What we need is a tire compound that will have some longevity. Putting a new tire(s) on every night is outragious.

Dave Argabright and Mike O'Leary wrote a great article for OPEN WHEEL Mag back in February 2001 called BIG MONEY, LITTLE CARS. I highly recommend reading it. That was written 7 years ago. Obviously no one paid any attention to it.

Maybe an investigation as to what the IRS series is doing would be worthwhile. At least they are trying things out of the box and are willing to experiment. I don't see that going on anywhere else. And I'd be interested in what tires they are running and what they get out of them.

This is a bit off topic but it still is in the ballpark of expenses: Who's checking engines these days? The last time I heard of or saw an engine pumped was around 2001 at Sun Prairie. Is USAC checking? POWRi is not checking. Is this all about the money or are we going to enforce engine rules. I'd be interested in comments about this and if engines are being checked and where that took place recently.

OK... Here's a few thoughts to "noodle" over.

1. Since the USAC Sprint Cars went to the spec Hoosier Right Rear how many less tires does a team have to take to each race? How many less wheels do they need? What is the cost of an RD-12, 104 vs. the spec tire? Yes I know some guy is going to say he can by an American Racer cheaper but that's because he is on an American Racer deal. With the spec tire no one gets a deal.

2. With a tire rule you know that everyone is getting the same tire, ie. no special tires for special teams... it has happened, that's a fact.

3. What is the cost of the 84" tire verses the 82" SP-2,3,4? If there was no tire rule everyone would be on the 84" tire. Hoosier built it to compete with the American Racer that was 83". How long until there would be an 85" Midget Right Rear and where would it stop?

4. I remember when one of the Big$$ USAC Midget Teams showed up with 32 tires, mounted at the Hut Hundred for ONE car. I counted them,that was 15 years ago, no tire rule then.

5. How much ongoing research and development cost trickles down to the cost of a tire when you do not have an assurance that this is the tire that be used for a certain period of time? Would it be the tire of the week and the brand of the week. What would a tire company do with a bunch of brand new, obsolete tires in inventory, we all know who would pay for them in the end.

6. At least now a Silver Crown Car can use 2-3 Right Rears per race rather than 4-6 when there was no compound rule.

I have no affiliation with any tire company... Have at it!

This was the perfect reply. Every time the tire subject comes up we get the replies that harder skinny tires won't work. That is complete BS. Kurt Mayhew took a non sportsman midget and put the Mickey Thompsons or maybe the American Racers that replaced them on and kicked ASS. The car handled fine. It didn't bicycle of go flipping out of the park cause the tires dug into the track. I think people don't want to go back to hard skinny tires because then they would have to learn how to race a car and not a dollar bill!



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