As artificial surface tracks tracks become more popular, tire strategy is becoming a lost art. I started racing on indoor clay tracks. It was a must to have tires in race shape.
If your on office carpet, or CRC carpet, your tire strategy could separate you from your competition. It’s free! Give it a try.
The top racers around the world start their setup around their tires. It’s that important.
First, analyze the surface, and the layout. Some tires are better at corner entry, and some better at corner exit. Some have better forward drive, and some have more rotation. An example, I showed up to RC Plus, planning on running Nessi rear tire. After the first run, I thought my car was kind of edgy on the rear tire, without much rotation. I switched to the Fuzz Bite rear tire. It had more rotation, and was easier to drive. The Fuzz Bite wasn’t edgy on landing.
On carpet/turf tracks, new tires will always have the potential to be faster. Sometimes fast equals hard to drive. Drivability is more important than a fast lap, in my opinion.
At Superior RC, I like tires that are broken in. I’ll put 3-4 runs on them before I race them. I feel like they get easier to drive as they wear. When they wear excessively, (like pictured) they will loose some high speed stability. A fresher tire will be better if you make a mistake, and have to protect your line. The worn tires don’t really fall off for me if I’m running my race.
Setup is a give and take. Tires are no different. The next time your club racing, make a strategy, and stick to it. The worst that can happen, is a friend gets bragging rights for a week or so!