TAC - February 18th & 19th, 2012
(Story, photography and video- Scott Miller)
Back to 2012 Index
TAC - February 18th & 19th, 2012
(Story, photography and video- Scott Miller)
Back to 2012 Index
Read the disclaimer if you are prone to believing everything you read.
|
This Report brought to you by
Support These Sponsors! |
Thanks to TAC for hosting this weekend and Gianni Biral from DAC for filling in as Clerk Of The Course. This weekend was a meltdown, water showing up on the track and lots of mud everywhere made it look like it was to be our last weekend. If I were a betting man I would say that's it for the season given the deteriorated track and the warm weather forecasted for this coming week. Then again, I talked to Tom P. as I was leaving the track Sunday and he quite optimistically stated: "You never know what (track configuration) I might come up with but we will race this coming weekend". There is lots of ice beneath the banks and of course in the infield and to the north side of the track. The dirt has to be removed as quickly as possible and in fact as I was packing up to leave Sunday afternoon Tom had already started to grade off the sludge and bury it. The banks can be moved with heavy equipment giving us a new track surface and layout. That still doesn't change the weather forecast for this week though ( Click ) On a brighter note it was nice to be warm, temps got up to +4C Saturday and dropped to about -8C Sunday morning and up to about 0C Sunday afternoon. Both days saw lots of sunshine. The track went from a few potholes with some dirt in the kink early Saturday morning to what looked like the typical last weekend of racing meltdown by Sunday. At around 2PM racing was cancelled following a red flag incident that was a result of delayed communication between control and race medical. It was none-the-less decided, after the finish of that restarted race, that the potential for more injury was too great and the plug was pulled. I was sitting on mock grid at the time so I missed out on my second race of the day by a whisker. The track had areas of exposed dirt/soil with lots of grip mostly in the corners and then you would be back onto iced areas in the straighter sections so you had to transition quickly between grip and no grip. This is challenging enough
for a seasoned ice racer such as myself let alone for the rookies. As a consequence there were a lot of "mistakes" resulting in a fair bit of contact and sometimes ended with beaching on the banks. Along with the increased grip comes increased speeds and therefore the need for increased responsibility from each competitor to adjust their driving accordingly. It is also incumbent on the organizing club and officials to increase their vigilance from a safety perspective as a track becomes faster and more dangerous. I think Gianni did the right thing Sunday but I believe it was because some drivers just failed to adjust their driving to accommodate the conditions. Don't forget that any participant's bad attitude and/or action may be responsible one day for the one nasty incident that ends the fun for us all.
Running in the dirt is really hard on the exterior aluminum casing of the street studs (the portion of the stud that actually provides all the traction) and within a few laps the diminished grip is noticeable. I had pretty much rounded the leading edge off the studs on the two new rear tires on the Volvo in Sunday's last race last weekend so this Friday afternoon I rotated them 180 degrees hoping that they would remain in that orientation. It worked for a while but the fresh sharp aluminum leading edge was quickly wasted by about halfway through the qualifier Saturday morning again from running on the dirt. Tony Silvaggi and Ahmad Khodkar showed up for their first weekend this season each with a brand new set of street stud tires (both their cars competing in AWD) but they went home at the end of racing Saturday after destroying their studs in just the one day.
Speaking of the street stud series, here's a can of worms for ya ... there has apparently been some deviation from the "approved" studs and possibly some variation in tires across entries. This weekend it was discovered by race officials that some competitors have installed their own version of studs other than those "approved" and installed by Concorde Tirecraft and further that even tractionized street stud tires were found! Needless to say this is not in the intended spirit of the series where everyone is supposed to run on the same tire and stud specification. Scrutineering and officials should keep a closer eye on street stud tires - maybe street stud tires should have to be presented at car tech and a stamp branded into the tire validating the tire and studs? Having said that, I would really like to see a shorter stud length and use the ones that look identical to existing but that have a steel casing rather than aluminum. A slightly shorter stud would still protrude beyond the tread surface enough to allow the shoulder to do the job of digging into the ice but with less stud extending above the tread surface, there would be less leverage over the remaining portion residing in the tread block and therefore fewer studs being ripped from their pockets. I have several studs missing from all 4 tires on the Ovlov. A steel casing would of course provide a longer life to the stud especially under any track conditions other than ice. All my 4 tires including 2 which were new this year are toast after running last Sunday in the dirt and are completely destroyed after this weekend's mudfest.
It was also discovered this weekend that not all Hankook iPike W409 tires being run are identical. On examination of the sidewall lettering on my tires I discovered I have a total of ten tires with the lettering "84T" following the rim size information. Some other competitors have the same "84T" however some have "82T" and still others "90T". At present the rules on street stud tires do not cover this numbering nor does it define studs well enough. From the ice racing rulebook: 2.5.3 Street Studs
a)
All tires shall be purchased from TireCraft
(905) 760-1130, 91 Peelar, So, as far as the rulebook goes, the tire specifications simply states it has to be a "Hankook W409" and as far as the studs go they have to be "#15". From from Hankook's Canadian website ...
1) the number following the tire size info on the sidewall is called the
"Load Index" and the letter following that number is known as the "Speed
Symbol".
What manufacturing process differences are there that results in a different Load Index? If for example the lower the Load Index number, the softer the tread compound, then I would reason that the lower numbered 82 tire would be an advantage over the harder 84 tire on ice and thus not everyone is running on the same or "spec" tire. One source I consulted (the head of winter tread development at Continental Tire in Europe) stated that the load Index number refers primarily to the side wall construction and the stiffness of the side wall - in other words the ability to carry a heavier load goes up the stiffer the side wall and the higher the number. So a tire rated 90 would have a stiffer sidewall than one rated 82. Regardless of my speculation these tires have been differentiated by the manufacturer using differing Load Index ratings on the sidewall and therefore are not all the same tire and thus violates the intent of a "spec" tire IMHO. From TireRack's website regarding "#15" studs: http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=151 The rulebook states that studs are a #15 but does not further clarify whether aluminum or steel casing can be used nor the shape of the stud, diameter or length. The #15 studs shown on TireRack's link above are noted to be 15/32" long and look similar to, if not the same as, the ones in my tires. It does not say whether they are aluminum or steel cased but that the tip is tungsten. I am not sure what the ruling should be regarding W409 tires with differing Load Index numbers on them but they are obviously not the same tire. I, as probably most other SS competitors, had no knowledge of this discrepancy until this weekend as I had presumed that providing the same tires for all competitors was by definition a "spec tire" and was the sole responsibility of Tirecraft. As to the studs themselves, why wouldn't steel encased studs be used over aluminum? It's pretty obvious that steel would better withstand the abuse we put these studs through in ice racing and the end-of-season frozen dirt/mud conditions we encounter which are so abrasive. As to track wear I don't see any difference as the aluminum ones hardly deteriorate at all if only driven on ice. Rumour had it, at one point Sunday afternoon, that all non-spec tires would have to be replaced by correct tire for next weekend including that they had to be 82T! Andy Hughes assured me this was not the case that we could run same tires next weekend but only with #15 studs in them. I still don't know what the situation will be for next year. I think some of the aforementioned ambiguity in the specifications should be cleared up at the next rules meeting. Some light bed time reading: "The Pneumatic Tire" (US Department Of Transportation - 2006)
Andriy Levin is now the proud owner of the red MR2 that was originally prepped by Tony McGrath and previously owned by Nick Majors. Andriy was racing it for the first time this weekend and is sporting a "perma grin" from ear to ear. He has yet to break himself of the habits specific to the Supra (former car) learned over the past two seasons as was evidenced by the number of dents, some major ( Video - courtesy Steve Gidman), and multi coloured paint streaks. But I believe he has taken to it very well given the lousy track conditions on which to learn.
Driving the Ovlov was challenging what with the track switching back and forth from tons of grip in the dirt in the corners to slippery ice between corners but I did have fun. The sudden extreme switching back and forth grip levels caught more than a few unexpectedly. There were many banked cars but surprisingly no rollovers (although there were a couple close calls). Unfortunately there were also a fair number of cars destroyed or badly damaged. One such mess was during a RTI race Sunday in class 1,4 where the lead pack of AWD cars got messed up between the 1st and second corner on the first lap. ( Video - courtesy Steve Gidman).
Trashed the front end and hood of the #78, caved in the drivers side door pillar and broke the side door window on Doug Forbes' #80 Justy, car #290 sustained damage, and it appears that car #19 did some spinning about in the midst of the initial melee. As we were done early Sunday and the roads were dry and sun stayed out I took advantage and towed the MR2 home for the season - one less thing to do next weekend (maybe it will see some asphalt this summer).
Video:
SS1_1st_race_Sat_2012-02-18_MVI 2615 Results: Pics: Pics from this weekend (courtesy Jimmy McGlade): The following photos are courtesy Jim McGlade ...
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)