USCC 2014 Entry List & Schedule ONLY

[PointDSM]

DeltaWing Racing ‏@DeltaWingRace 51m
Big @DeltaWingTech news coming tomorrow!!! #WatchThisSpace

Someone buy one!? Lemans entry!?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by PointDSM

DeltaWing Racing ‏@DeltaWingRace 51m
Big @DeltaWingTech news coming tomorrow!!! #WatchThisSpace

Someone buy one!? Lemans entry!?

Road car... http://sportscar365.com/industry/del...-car-revealed/

[ttdriver2009]

And as far as I can tell, modern fans aren't too upset if there isn't a lot of tire competition.

That makes sense because the PWC is really popular with the fans yet they all run a spec Pirelli. Plus Pirelli writes a big check (they must because they sponsor the series). From the what I see it, having Continental as a spec tire supplier is no different than having Pirelli as a spec tire supplier for PWC.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by joeb

Road car... http://sportscar365.com/industry/del...-car-revealed/

Wow. That's stunning.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Wow. That's stunning.

That's one way to put it!

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by ttdriver2009

That makes sense because the PWC is really popular with the fans yet they all run a spec Pirelli. Plus Pirelli writes a big check (they must because they sponsor the series). From the what I see it, having Continental as a spec tire supplier is no different than having Pirelli as a spec tire supplier for PWC.

SCCA WC is a series mainly for amateurs... I don't think anyone cares what tires are run in such format. Plus since it all gets BoPped constantly coming up with better compounds would be rather meaningless for tire manufacturers (this is obviously the case in many other series)

[ttdriver2009]

PWC looks like a pro series to me. Cadillac, Acura, the various Porsche+Audi teams and now Dyson, it's a Pro Series where amateurs can run in it too. Isn't that what happens in IMSA too?

[Maelochs]

PWC is SCCA's professional series. A lot of wealthy part-time racers drive there but it is still a pro series, with serious factory teams and high-powered pro drivers.

Even so, keeping costs down is always important, and a spec tires in now way hurts and in many ways helps the series.

Much easier to BoP cars if they all run the same tire, much better to have a major sponsor ... all the stuff that has been said in this thread.

Fans watch PWC because it has Lambos, McLarens. Audis, Ferraris, and Porsches, not because of the tires.

As far as it goes, F1 uses a spec tire---I'd say F1 could be called a professional series.

Still haven't seen ads for Pirelli's F1-inspired street tire--replace it after every trip to the grocery store.

[ttdriver2009]

Would it be safe to say that having Conti as the sole tire supplier is not a problem since it's done in many other Pro series? Even at Le Mans, it's becoming a race where only two manufacturers choose to compete. I see it as Falken has no plans on going anywhere but IMSA, Dunlop has no plans for the US market (yet they are the tire of choice for the LPM-2 class) and Yokohama has their own spec series to supply tires to. As of now, it looks like having Continental is not that bad for IMSA.

[Accident]

Originally Posted by joeb

Road car... http://sportscar365.com/industry/del...-car-revealed/

So this will be the next lame Panoz idea that never really gets off the ground. Makes the Abruzzi look amazing.

I think it's funny that the rendering is supposed to be how it could look as a 4 passenger car... Good luck finding 4 people that would be seen in that thing.

[PointDSM]

Originally Posted by ttdriver2009

Would it be safe to say that having Conti as the sole tire supplier is not a problem since it's done in many other Pro series? Even at Le Mans, it's becoming a race where only two manufacturers choose to compete. I see it as Falken has no plans on going anywhere but IMSA, Dunlop has no plans for the US market (yet they are the tire of choice for the LPM-2 class) and Yokohama has their own spec series to supply tires to. As of now, it looks like having Continental is not that bad for IMSA.

The issue is that the Pirelli tire is awesome! Conti makes a mediocre GTD tire, and a ridiculously rock-hard tire for Prototype, which favors one genre of car over the other.

[ttdriver2009]

Originally Posted by PointDSM

The issue is that the Pirelli tire is awesome! Conti makes a mediocre GTD tire, and a ridiculously rock-hard tire for Prototype, which favors one genre of car over the other.

In PWC there is a huge variety of cars in GT/GTS/TC. I would suspect that that the spec Pirelli would work well on certain types of cars and not so well on others. Seems that the same thing applies for Continental. When you look at Continental, they make tires for P/PC/GTD/GS/ST. That's a wide range of tires.

Also, didn't the PC cars go faster when they switched from Michelin to Continental in 2013? Both were spec tires for a spec class. Didn't the same guy in the same car at Laguna pretty much run the same lap time on a Michelin in 2013 as he did on a Continental in 2014 (the ESM car). I find it difficult to believe that Continental is a horrible tire. Maybe a Pirelli is awesome but it wouldn't really matter because the tire companies have their own series to deal with and that set of circumstances.

Plus with a bit of internet searching, PWC races are 50 minutes each, not 60. They have 60 minutes of time on the track to account for lining up on the track, the pace lap, standing start and cool off lap.

[Ginaro Zukovsky]

Originally Posted by ttdriver2009

Also, didn't the PC cars go faster when they switched from Michelin to Continental in 2013? Both were spec tires for a spec class. Didn't the same guy in the same car at Laguna pretty much run the same lap time on a Michelin in 2013 as he did on a Continental in 2014 (the ESM car). I find it difficult to believe that Continental is a horrible tire. Maybe a Pirelli is awesome but it wouldn't really matter because the tire companies have their own series to deal with and that set of circumstances.

PC cars went faster on Continentals but according to DHH the tyres weren't lasting as long - the Michelins were known as rocks for a reason.

You're correct that ESM did the same time as in 2013, but they were basically 2 seconds behind the Level 5 polesitting car with identical equipment (Michelins), which in turn was 0.8s behind Level 5 on Dunlops in 2012. Remember, P2 engines in TUSC even have a little bit more power than their ACO counterparts, and now ESM have a year's worth of experience so you would expect them to be faster if not for the Continentals.

[ttdriver2009]

In the end, a spec tire is not a deal breaker for the fans. If a car goes 1 second per lap faster on a tire, does the fan really notice? Does it really matter? If PWC would open up the tire rule, I would think that someone could make a faster tire than what they run on right now. It's obvious that they won't because Pirelli writes a big check, same for Continental. I suspect the same is for NASCAR, F1, Blancpain and Indycar. It would seem that a tire company could easily make a better tire than what they use in those perspective series. With a bit of big business marketing that's I have been exposed to, a spec tire supplier would want to have a reliable tire that does not fail. That way, it looks like they make a great product. It might not be the best out there (when it comes to the ultimate lap time) but that doesn't really matter. Just work well enough for the variety of cars you need to supply tires for.

[Breitling24]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Wow. That's stunning.

Yes, I'd be stunned to see it on a street.

[otisdog]

Originally Posted by Breitling24

Yes, I'd be stunned to see it on a street.

I would think that the driver would keep shearing off the rear tires, given how much wider they are than the rest of the car...kinda like my brother did when the Ford "dualie' pickups first came out.

[TRspitfirefan]

Originally Posted by ttdriver2009

It seems to me that a single tire manufacturer for a series must make sense. From looking at PWC, it used to be Toyo and then it became Pirelli. The Blancpain series uses Pirelli. ALMS became a series where everyone ran Michelins except for Falken and that Delta Wing. At this point, I don't really see what the benefit of an open tire formula is, if everyone in the end uses the same brand. Plus, I keep hearing about customer tires. That tells me that a tire company can make a specific tire for one particular team and the rest get a generic off the shelf unit. Dunlop pulled out of the US market and Yokohama doesn't seem to be interested in anything except for the GT3 Cup series. Goodyear is in NASCAR and BFG has been off of the radar for may years. Firestone does Indy. Pirelli already has their own series.

Since when has "everybody's doing it" been a good argument in favor of anything?
While it may be true that many US sportscar racing fans don't really care whether teams are allowed tire freedom, A LOT of us actually do.
One of the things that I find fascinating about sports car racing, is the competition between, not just the teams and drivers, but also the different manufacturers of race cars and race car parts.
As an Auto mechanic by trade, the technical side of racing is the part that appeals to me the most.
Spec tires?.... JUST SAY NO!!

[TRspitfirefan]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

I hate you use that dirty "R" word but ... I think racing tires have so lost relevance to street rubber than manufacturers are only in it for the brand exposure---in which case, being dominant in a series is a good thing.

Maybe each manufacturer could, through doing millions in R&D, come up with a tire which sticks better And lasts longer---but it seems that that is not a goal anyone knows how to achieve with conventional technology.

Thus most gains are so small as to be almost meaningless--a set of tires from any top-tier manufacturer is likely to be about on par with any other---in which case, winning is down to other factors, and spending money on a total crapshoot where the outcome is decided by outside forces .... tough sell to the bean-counters.

"Racing Improves the Breed" only so long as companies are willing to spend the big bucks, and then, they really need to know up front that there will be some tangible improvement to their daily product arising from their racing product.

With the goal of passenger car tires being to offer decent performance, a comfortable ride, long life, and low rolling resistance--as opposed to the racing tire which needs to be super light, able to handle high heat with minimal material, and ridiculously sticky for only about 300 miles---there just isn't much room for technology crossover.

While there may not be much direct technology transfer ( I don't know. I'm not a tire expert.) If a tire company is able to engineer solutions to the extreme conditions of motor racing, then I think it speaks well to their ability to design a product that is well suited to the rigors of everyday traffic.

The only other reason to go racing is PR, and by sponsoring a single-supplier series, the manufacturer gets guaranteed good results.

Good results are meaningless, if they are simply purchased.

Conti doesn't have to spend much money on R&D for its Tudor tires---so long as they don't delaminate (I'm looking at you, Pirelli,), Conti wins. If they didn't have a small field, no competition, and guaranteed positive advertising I doubt there would be sufficient RoI to bother.

Personally, I resent tire companies bragging about their success in spec tire series.
It does not impress me that Firestone has won the last number of INDY 500s, or that Goodyear has been victorious in all NASCAR events of the last decade, or that Pirelli has dominated F1 last season.
I feel much more positive towards companies such as Michelin or Falken.

And as far as I can tell, modern fans aren't too upset if there isn't a lot of tire competition. I don't recall seeing a Dunlop, Goodyear, or Michelin fan corral like I see Corvette, BMW, or Jag corrals. Companies see that fans are responding to makes, not tire makers ... so why spend big bucks to fight for small returns?

I don't know about that. I've seen a whole lot of Falken tire banners displayed by fans. I've also noticed a lot of the vehicles driven by fans are sporting Michelin or Falken tires.

Add to that, the series is probably happier knowing that it can count on all the cars being on decent rubber, and enough of it being there to run the races. One less variable, one less potential headache.

Further the series are probably happiest getting that big sponsor check up front, and knowing that it has that part of its budget guaranteed way before the season starts.

All factors working against tire wars, and leading to single-tire series.

Sadly the sponsor dollars provided by companies like Continental (companies too scared to try and compete in open tire classes/series.)
probably will prevent a return of open tires.
Happily GTLM is at least still allowing free competition in the tire department so all is not lost...(yet.)

[Mechanic Z]

Open tires was one of the biggest things that drew me into sports car racing back in the early 2000's.

If sports car racing is too similar to everything else, why would anyone choose it over NASCAR or Indycar?

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by ttdriver2009

In the end, a spec tire is not a deal breaker for the fans. If a car goes 1 second per lap faster on a tire, does the fan really notice? Does it really matter?

In some cases, yes it is. Yes, fans notice, yes it matters.

A premier Sportscar Series should have open tires in it's Pro divisions. Of course, GT (2,LM) has open tires, as it still represents the remnants of premier Sportscar Racing. Dunlop, Falken, Michelin have all been in the category recently, with Pirelli, Hankook as well in Europe. It gives the category greater appeal.

I don't mind spec tire in the Pro-Am categories, these categories aren't really for fans, as much as they are for filling grids.

At the end of the day, TUSC isn't a Premier Racing series anyway, just one that has false pretences of being one.

[ttdriver2009]

I guess it makes sense why IMSA uses a spec tire. Since it's not a premier series, they might as well go with a spec tire that's horrible (I assume it's a really bad tire since that's what I keep reading here). I'd really like to see PWC open up their tire rule because with all of the big teams running in that series, it could become the premier sportscar racing in the states. Imagine a Dunlop shod Dyson Bentley as opposed to any rock hard Continental shod GTD car.

[Dyson Mazda]

Originally Posted by ttdriver2009

I guess it makes sense why IMSA uses a spec tire. Since it's not a premier series, they might as well go with a spec tire that's horrible (I assume it's a really bad tire since that's what I keep reading here). I'd really like to see PWC open up their tire rule because with all of the big teams running in that series, it could become the premier sportscar racing in the states. Imagine a Dunlop shod Dyson Bentley as opposed to any rock hard Continental shod GTD car.

Is F1 still considered a premier open wheel series?

[TzeiTzei]

Originally Posted by Dyson Mazda

Is F1 still considered a premier open wheel series?

Ofcourse not. There has to be a tyre war because...well there just has to be one.

[ttdriver2009]

I was wondering that. I hear no complaints that all of these other series run on spec tires but for some reason that since it happens in IMSA, it's wrong. If Michelin supplied 100% of the tires in IMSA, would that be just fine? Even LeMans has been reduced to two brands and for such an important race, you'd think that Yokohama, Falken, BFG, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Hankook, Pirelli and so on, would want to be involved. Yet they are not. For LeMans, it's Michelin for every class except for LMP2 (their competition is Dunlop). Realistically, the only tire war left on the planet is in LMP2, GTLM and local club racing.

It seems to me that it is a pie in the sky sort of thing. We want a tire war but the companies that make tires, won't participate in the war. I think that we just have to accept the fact that tire wars are going away and get on with it.

[TRspitfirefan]

Originally Posted by Dyson Mazda

Is F1 still considered a premier open wheel series?

There are a lot of things that I don't like about Formula 1.
Lack of tire freedom is one of them.