Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126784
Ted Boody's street Dunlop (above) survived Hawthorne, but the track proved fatal to Scott Parker's Carlisle (below); it blew as he finished. Excessive tire wear may change mile racing. Doug Chandler's Carlisle (shown) was worn to its second cord layer at the checkered. 'nre manufacturers, ANA look at dirt track tire W'ear problems By Gary Van Voorhis The decision by AMA officials to shorten the August 5 Hawthorne Mile National from 25 laps to 16 brought to light, graphically, the excessive tire wear problems Camel Pro Series dirllrack racers may face for lhe reSl of lhe season. The problem surfaced al Haw. d'd" lhorne, b ul il 1 n l begm lhere. Representatives of the two tire manufacturers involved in producing dirt track racing tMs' ~ CarfiSle and Goodyear - provided the AMA \~ith projections of their respective llre producllon/mventory to meet the demands of the 1984 season. In turn. the AMA checked the figures and looked at the availability of certain tires, in this case those designated by the manufacturer as their -mi'le tra'c1hon'rp'oVndt ): afld-tlel:ldt.'ij that Goodyear's figures for 1984 wouldn't offer availability to all riders through normal distribution channels beyond August I. An AMA rules/tire approval bulletin dated January 3. 1984, noted that due to availability Goodyear's (A/17rear) mile tire would be disallowed from competition as of August I. Thai decision, made seven months earlier. left the riders at Cicero with a choice of Carlisle's tire as the only approved race-worthy rear tire. (Any DOT tire approved for road use may also be used.). After 161aps at racing peeds, nearly every racer in the 17 rider field at Hawthorne had a rear tire which wouldn't have lasted much longer. COtt Parker's blew just after he took the checkered flag while the tires of Randy Goss and Doug Chandler had the second layer of cord showing on virtually the entire racing edge of the tire. Terry Poovey's blown engine two laps from the finish wa a stroke of good luck. His tire showed extreme wear. In contrast, Jimmy Filice - a 115 pound rider - probably could've run 25 laps with no problems. Ted Boody opted to run a Dunlop K391 Sport Elite (street tire). It showed comparatively little wear. Six mile ationals remain to be run before the end of the AMA Grand National Championship season ends. As the situation stands there could be tire wear problems at some/all of those races which would require the AMA, in the interest of rider safety. to shorten or alter the running of those ationals. To find out what was being done to resolve the situation. we contacted representatives of the AMA and the tire companies, plus riders and team managers. 1 C'at'liSlt"s Jehh'·Ya", their Inb'tor- cycle tire product manager. saw the Hawthorne race as an extreme example of what can happen to a tire. "If you set out to prepare a track to be as destructive as you possibly could on a tire it would be pretty much like Hawthorne," said Yaw. "We know from talking with some of the riders that some had problems while others didn't. So much depends on a lot of variables and one of the biggest variables is the rider's right (throttle) wrist. Hawthorne was an abrasive track on a hot day; a long mile which produced some very competitive racing. All those circumstances combined led to what you saw at Hawthorne. Syracuse could produce basically the same problem. "Relative to every other tire available, and now we're talking basically about the Goodyear mile tire. we don't feel there is a problem," continued Yaw. "There were no Goodyear tires used at Hawthorne and from what we've seen at previous races it is my opinion the Goodyear tire wouldn't have performed significantly different than the Carlisle. "We are committed to supply racing tires for the season and we will do that regardless of whatever else happens." said Yaw. "We will insure an adequate supply of tires. The SIS rear tire is in production and will remain so as long as it is needed. Even if we went to a "harder" compound we couldn't positively say it would do this or that better without track testing and such." Questioned on the rumors that Carlisle would be withdrawing their support of Class C racing at the end of the season, Yaw said: "We are, at the present time, evaluating our participation in Class C racing. We will be making an announcement in the tT . . t n , "(Co"ri'tMtlt'd to pag~ 5'4) 11