This is a note from Tom Curley, concerning the state of the Late Model tire situation. Dave e-mailed him about all of the concerns, and this is what was replied:

Hi David,
Unfortunately they are right to complain. When the tires were switched from the US made RS to the Canadian made LS (end of July)) the tires tested great. The only problem with them was they were too small!! Averaged around 84 with some at 84.2 and others at 83.7. They still tested great even with horrible stagger and there were no real 'growing size' issues.

We have been using these tires since around the middle of August. We will finish the year with them, but Goodyear has done a lot of research on what has gone wrong with the consistency of the sizes etc.

Here are some suggestions you can pass on to your people to help them through the balance of the year.

1. There is no difference with the compound from the US made tires.

2. The new right side tires actually wear as well or better than the old US RS units.

3. The handwritten labels are meaningless as we don't know where they are being measured ---outer rim, center of tire, blown up or not etc. AVOID using the sizes on the new RS tires until GY gets the computer in place and we get back to accuracy. In other words, have everyone 'tape' the tires on the outer edge just like we did for the past 40 years. As an example a unit that is labeled by the factory as an 85.1 might actually measure under the tape as small as 84 or as large as 85.7...I know because I have measured at least 300 of these myself with a tape.

4. There seems to be nothing stable about what tires build extraordinary size and which ones stay constant within a 1/2 inch.

5. The units that seem to work best are the ones that measure the smallest cold off the piles. This will not make many of the Seekonk teams happy as they traditionally have wanted a whole lot more stagger than anywhere else where the tires are used, but the difference is that you leave a 'cushion' for size growth as you can grow the 84 or 84.2 units by at least an inch or inch and 1/2, compared to the old US built units which you might get 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch maximum.

6. We have found the best way to help these tires retain their size is to scuff the tires no more than 8 laps with 25psi at 3/4 speed. Bring the scuff tires in and take ALL the air out of them until they cool. Then put 24-26 pounds in them and practice like a full heat race of 12-15 laps of hard racing. Resize the unit, take the air build up back to your starting point (24-26) and let them cool off completely before racing them. [Note: some of the teams are finding that the tires are better as a repeat tire than they are as a new tire...we have certainly found that the tires retain their speed if they retain their size from a durability standpoint.

7. Finally, the Goodyear engineers tell me they think they have found the problem with the tire as it relates to radical growth. The are coming to Thunder Road this weekend to conduct another test with the remake tires. (Something about the cord stretching when we asked them to increase significantly the original RS build. I am guessing that the elasticity of the cords was compromised with the increase sizing we required and thus the problems. As soon as we had our first race they actually stopped production of the tire but obviously we will have to struggle through the balance of the year.

I will gather as many RS tires as I can after this weekend and measure up the smallest I can find to get to you for the DAV if you think that might help your teams. I will also let you know what the Goodyear people have to say after the test this weekend.

I am sure they will fix the problem. Sorry you are facing the disgruntled teams, but have them bear with us and we will get things fixed and appreciate their co-operation.

Tom

If you have any further questions, you can contact Dave Alburn at ssruleman@aol.com