I did some homework when I got home last night. I also have seen postings from
Jim Rohn and Jost Sirota. Found out that I had a few things wrong, so I feel
that I owe everyone a correction to my posting of yesterday.
* The asymmetric construction (stiffer inside wall) that was introduced,
officially, in 1991 and debuted at Salina in 1990 was the 206 model, for
autocrossing.
* The Team T/A Newsletter that talked about how the 204 and 206 series
were successful at their Salina and Road Atlanta debuts was the December
1990/January 1991 issue.
* The protest that Pete Larson wrote on tires was at the 1988 Nationals,
and not the 1990 Nationals. Protest was thrown out since the protested tires
was of a tire model introduced by April 30th, and therefore were legal.
* As Josh mentioned in his post, the only two criteria for a new model
was tread pattern or model designation by the tire manufacturer. Construction
was not included in the rule.
I was gently reminded in a private posting about the 1989 BFG tires, at
Nationals, having (supposedly - can't claim personal experience, as I wasn't
on BFGs in '89) a special compound. Same private posting also reminded me that
some folks "banked" their '89 Nationals tires for major events in 1990, and
did rather well. Since, again, I don't have first hand experience, it would be
inappropriate for me to cite details. I hesitate to write this, but do so
because John Whitling did mention the '89 tires in his original post that
kicked all this off.
Al Chan
(will be off-line until Monday, feel free to privately post any debates)
> ----------
> From: Chan, Albert (GEP)
> Sent: Friday, April 23, 1999 11:23 AM
> To: 'team.net'
> Subject: FW: The tire thing^n and personal responsibility
>
> A few recollections from another observer, who has no particular feelings
> one way or another:
>
> * The BFG with assymetric carcass (was that the 226?) was "introduced"
> silently at the 1990 Nationals (not the 1989 Nationals as John Whitling
> remembers).
> * The public acknowledgement by BFG about the 226 (?) was in the April
> (?) 1991 Team T/A newsletter, where the cover article was how the assymetric
> construction R-1 was "successfully introduced" at Salina and Road America in
> the fall of 1990. That was interesting to me, in light of the next two
> bullet points.
> * If I recall (and I do have the older rule books in my basement, but
> I'm not home right now, go ahead and call me anal), the April 30th rule was
> in effect in 1990.
> * As far as the comment below about protests, Pete Larson did write a
> protest at the 1990 Nationals. It was thrown out.
> * Of course, the tire wars at Nationals was started by Goodyear, in the
> large Corvette sized tires at the 1987 Nationals. Limited quantity for
> certain drivers. At least that's what's been told to me, by yet another
> co-driver who was a Goodyear supported driver for a few years in the late
> '80s and early '90s.
>
> Anyone care to share their other recollections?
>
>
> Al Chan
> (Had the latest R1s on his F-Stock Firebird at the 1990 Nationals - shared
> the car with a BFG contract driver who insisted that I should have the
> "latest" rubber)
>
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