January 14, 2011

Jeffersonville, Ohio -- Practice is finally over here at the CRCRC Midwest Winter Championships. The heats are being sorted, the track is being watered and drivers are heading out to dinner after a long day of work.

The track has been a topic of conversation throughout the pits, as it is at pretty much any race. This year’s course is really fast-paced, but not as smooth as it looks. Upon closer inspection, you will find Bobcat tracks left over from the build all over. These bumps have been causing cars to become unsettled in many sections of the track. Then, consider the high-speed nature of the layout, mixed with the aforementioned bumps, and you can see where problems may exist.

Throughout practice, drivers have been testing tire combinations like crazy. Since the facility is new, most people are exhausting their supplies of tires and then some in an effort to find the best combination for the new surface.

There have been lots of mixed opinions in the pits as to whether treaded front tires or ribs work best in 2WD. At the end of the day, though, it seems most drivers have settled on treaded fronts.

Another thing drivers have had mixed opinions on, is whether to run tires with new pins, or to ‘scrub’ them in beforehand. As you can imagine, as the day went on and the surface dried up, drivers began to migrate toward the full-pin tires. But even when the track dried out, worn in tires still worked.

The timing system was running throughout practice, but sheets were not printed. Based on the ‘pit talk’ we’ve been hearing, all of the usual suspects are running fast. We’ll know more about fast guys who may be off the pace or unknowns who are running fast tomorrow once we get some more detailed results. We’ll report back then!