Purpose of changing tire brand each year?

[Patrick Roth]

As a newbie to racing I'm curious as to the purpose/intent of changing to a different tire? Is there an actual economic benefit to the club or the racers? Or is it simply to throw in a variable to play with each year?

I don't have a strong opinion or thoughts on this one and am simply curious.

Thanks!

Patrick

[dpergande]

Economic benefit to the club....MG, Bridgestone, Mojo, etc. they all have their pluses and minuses to wear and tear, but seem to be roughly right around the same price.

[Patrick Roth]

What is the "economic benefit to the club"? Sponsorship money for races?

From the racers perspective I would think we would want to stick with whatever tire is the same as, or closest to, the SKUSA spec for the class? Being a Rotax owner I would be all for Mojo as well but I'm in the minority and run TaG anyway (not Rotax).

[Scott Boone]

There are promotions for the club to specify a tire brand. The total benefit to the club pales in comparison to the total cost to the racers. I think we would all be shocked to know what we spent in total for mg tires this year. I dont remember the details but last year we evaluated bridgestone ykc, mg yellow and maxxis tires. The cost ranged from (correct me paul) $225 for the mgs per set to $165 for maxxis. The softer the tire, the more grip, the more physical, the faster etc. The softer the less durable and the shorter life. We had racers this year run new tires on for every race while years past they could run 3 races. If we went with a harder compound we could possible reduce the cost to our racers significantly. Some will say we need to tune with the same tires to prepare our racers for national events. The problem is only a small percentage of our racers race national events and the track surfaces are very different from our track anyway. It is likely a national racer will have to tune to the track and the tire experience will be minor. I like to race lots of races and am in favor of selecting the absolutely cheapest and most durable tire we can source for the racers. We say this each year but we continue to spec the same tires as the big events. Maybe this year we will change this.....My two cents.

[Brad Johnson]

I would like to see some cheap ones. I'm a tire cheap skate, I think I bought 3 sets this year, and one used set.

[Patrick Roth]

When can we expect to hear what the spec tire will be for next year?