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We unfortunately got some great footage from our on-board camera of Matt’s front tires coming apart in the heat race, and again in the main at IMI yesterday. I will have it up on You Tube as soon as Matt’s brother can find time to edit all of the junk out of it.
The video clearly shows that it was tire failure, not chassis or driver error. Most of the fast shifters and TAGs went through tires yesterday as to prove we got a bad batch from the factory. I do not believe that the heat or asphalt was the cause of these tire failures.Tire failures happen in all forms of motorsports, even F1. I was just glad to see nobady got hurt driving on these rejects.
Question is, if someone were to get injured by having tire failure, who would be liable?
How do we prove tire malfunction?
Why did the race proceed after it was determined we had bad tires from multiple sources?
Just wondering here again.
Thanks, CurtGood questions.
It is the first time I’ve seen a Tag blister a new tire in one session. Jay had great tire wear, but they were old – new tires.
Looks like some pretty good tuners had the same problem.
Greg blistered a couple of fronts. He stayed and tested afterwards and he thinks they found a cure? Hats off to Jay for figuring it out. If I remember correctly, last year there was some complaints of blistering tires in hot sticky conditions.
MY BROTHER LUIS HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH A BRAND NEW SET OF MG’S (FRONTS) AT THE FIRST RACE AT IMI WITH THE NEW SURFACE. :idn:
Wagner and Luis at MG are awesome guys and will help us figure things out… would love to know what Greg came up with…. We really love the MG’s, not a better tire out there and great people to stand behind them…
Brandon Anderson, Stock 125, also had a front tire failure. Tire blistered almost all the way around, right in the center, about 1 inch wide. Maybe MG will do something…at least replace the bad tires? :idn:
Doug,
We were there after trophy’s when Kyle and Greg went out. Track had cooled about 40 degree’s. Don’t know if that helped or not.
Jays tires were new but 6 months old or more.
Rick
I’m sure the lower temps helped and may color the results more than a bit. That’s why I put the question mark in! Actually he changed axles and while it didn’t feel overly stuck, it sure made a big change for the better in the handling. As he related to me, it didn’t feel like it was pushing but after the axle change, it really didn’t push!
Thats a great summary for driver feedback yesterday. It was a little difficult to tune. Full soft in the rear but hesitant to build too much or not enough grip in the front? You know?
Anyway, don’t know why it happened. We’ve raced on that surface before with track temps in the 120’s Haven’t seen the tires give out like that and with so many different chassis having problems, one would wonder if it wasn’t the tire as mentioned earlier. Giving out on lap two?
Maybe MG could take a sample tire and answer these very important questions. The Tag Worlds could certainly turn into a mess real quick!
Rick
David Chapel, Tag Sr. had the same front tire blister problem, 10 laps into the final race.
Harry Chapel
The TAG Worlds will be using the 5 tires approved by TAGUSA. For the MG tires that is the SLE Blues. They are one step harder than the Yellows. Should not be a problem and it sure won’t be as hot in October.
Blistered tires normally come from the lack of tire wear. If the tire doesn’t wear the surface gets hot (the shedding of rubber cools the tire). The material under the surface starts to overheat and “boils” the compounds within tire?s entire composition. The materials separate, leaving a void or blister. If you look at that area the appearance is the same as a pumice rock. The holes are the areas were the gasses escaped.
Excessive sliding of the tire will also cause the same condition.
We also had a blistered left front. I would say we had a push and for some reason the driver didn’t feel it. He actually liked the chassis quite a bit until the blister appeared.
Just my $.02
Mike
Is this a blister or what! I think we hit the perfect storm on this one. IMI has always been a track tough on front tires. The high speed and banked nature of the turns always puts a lot of pressure on the fronts. The combination of new surface, very hot track temps and track characteristics all came together at one point to create problems.
I’m not trying to say there is not a problem with the tires, I’m just saying that I would bet that if temps were just a bit cooler, there wouldn’t have been a problem or if the track had some slower flat corners, we wouldn’t have had this problem. On the other hand, I would have been interested to see if a B’stone YJB would have had the same problem in those conditions.
Blistering Mg’s is not a new problem. Curt can speak first hand to a MG red problem in Utah last year. There were also a lot of blistered front Mg’s Yellows there also which is why they switched to reds. At the end of the season last year, I remember more than a few blistered front tires at the last CSC at Centenial before the track cooled when it rained.
Overall, I really like the MG yellow. It gives good grip and seams to last a long time and not fall off. But I do think it has a problem with heat.
I do believe the tire failures were all part of the track surface vs heat vs type of speed IMI offers vs chassis set up vs driver style……
If the trire failures were limited to just a few karts, by inexperienced teams, it would be a different story. There were some pretty experienced and capable drivers/tuners blistering tires Sunday.
Back to my original questions:
When do we throw in the towell on a bad tire day? We need to consider all types of things including:
Driver safety
Equipment damage
Points race for championships
Dollars waisted on blistered tires after ten lapsI am sure the list can go on forever, however, putting safety as our #1 priority in this sport, Just when does a race director say “not today”.
And yes Doug, we all remember the “Red” days in SLC last year, and the “Joke-a-Hamma” days in SLC two years ago. We put Matt in the top five in both years only to go home on blistered tires.
Some how we need to be more responsible to what the total outcome may be. We do it with rain, lightning, barriers, where we can stand, hot pits….
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