IMHO, the rule against tire warming has always meant that you cannot go off
to some distant corner of the lot and do donuts for 60 seconds before coming
to the line. It most emphatically does NOT and NEVER HAS been a rule that
forbids a driver driving from his grid slot to the start line wiggling back
and forth on the way.
Hell, when I do it I AM trying to generate a tad bit of heat into the tires.
I make no bones about that. Nice if it knocks off the rocks too. I have done
it at Divisionals, I have done it at Nationals. So have most other drivers I
know in slick-tire classes (doesn't seem to be as much of an issue in street
tire classes). I have NEVER had it suggested to me that it was improper. And
I've been doing thid 35 years, more than 25 years in a Prep car.
The only rule that may be interpreted as forbidding your wiggly route to the
startline is the one that says you must do it safely. So I guess doing it at
50 mph on the ragged edge of adhesion is improper. Doing it at 10 mph where
you could not break adhesion if it was on soapsuds is not unsafe and
therefor IMHO not illegal.
I suspect the others in your class made no mention of it because it is so
common as to be not worth mention. But perhaps your event chair is not aware
of that.
--Rocky
-----Original Message-----
From: hottvr@aol.com <hottvr@aol.com>
To: autox@autox.team.net <autox@autox.team.net>; autox-cm@autox.team.net
<autox-cm@autox.team.net>; kcautox@egroups.com <kcautox@egroups.com>
Date: Sunday, October 01, 2000 8:34 PM
Subject: [kcautox] Illegal tire warming???
>Today I was accused of illegally warming my tires on the way from the grid
to
>the starting line. I was just wiggling the car from side to side to clean
>the tires.
>This was at a local two day event in Kansas City. The funny thing about it
>was that the others in my class made no mention of it. I was told by the
>event chair that if I
>did the "wiggle" on the way to the start that I would be DSQed from the
event.
>Of course in true Mike B. fashion the event chair was told to "Get a life"
>and that this
>was total BS. As usual I had the onboard tape running and the entire
incident
>was captured on video. My question to the list is this. What is "Tire
>Warming"???
>Is the wiggle on the way to the starting line illegal???? I didn't do it on
>my last run
>just to make sure that I had no further problems. Anyone have an opinion? I
>guess
>thats a pretty stupid question?????? Right.
>
>Mike B.
>
>
>
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