My first weekend of 2019 Spec Tire for FV at Sebring
Posted: January 17th, 2019, 5:18 pm
For general information....
From the cockpit, I was unable to FEEL any difference at all in the tires. In the first Q session on Friday, my best time was right in line with my best time from the same session last year .. with similar weather and also in line with the first session (practice) where I ran the old tires. However, our times fell off quite a bit after that. It's hard to say WHY the times were off that far, but G Rice posted on Apexspeed that FF times fell off 2-3 seconds during the weekend. From the cockpit again, I was not able to FEEL a change in the way the tires performed compared to the old C3000 tires - seemed as good on the last lap on Sunday (still only the 4th heat cycle) as they felt in the second qualifier on Sat morning .. but DID seem slower than that first session. Still no way to know whether it was the tire or the track .. or something else. Just not enough data. There were LOTS of yellows throughout the weekend that made it even more difficult to 'judge' the tires.
Although I'm a bit concerned that we might have a Spec Tire that is significantly better in its FIRST session than any other, it seemed quite consistent in later sessions. Only time and multiple races will tell us for sure.
On another related note, I checked the Hoosier RAIN tires in their catalog and the new Spec Rain Tire requirement for 2020 is the EXACT SAME tire as we have been using in recent years - so no need to go buy new ones if yours are decent (though I'm not sure how many years back the same tire actually goes). The basic goal I think is to eliminate anything other than HOOSIER rains.
On a side note.. Official Results posted new track records for FV using the Spec Tire. Russell Fredericks now holds the Sebring 12hr lap record with a 2:41.907, eclipsing Laura Hayes' record from Saturday by a couple of tenths. Just for comparison, the old record was 2:36.866 set in 2014 but I don't believe that difference at all reflects the difference in the tires. There were many more things in play than just the tire.
Steve, FV80
From the cockpit, I was unable to FEEL any difference at all in the tires. In the first Q session on Friday, my best time was right in line with my best time from the same session last year .. with similar weather and also in line with the first session (practice) where I ran the old tires. However, our times fell off quite a bit after that. It's hard to say WHY the times were off that far, but G Rice posted on Apexspeed that FF times fell off 2-3 seconds during the weekend. From the cockpit again, I was not able to FEEL a change in the way the tires performed compared to the old C3000 tires - seemed as good on the last lap on Sunday (still only the 4th heat cycle) as they felt in the second qualifier on Sat morning .. but DID seem slower than that first session. Still no way to know whether it was the tire or the track .. or something else. Just not enough data. There were LOTS of yellows throughout the weekend that made it even more difficult to 'judge' the tires.
Although I'm a bit concerned that we might have a Spec Tire that is significantly better in its FIRST session than any other, it seemed quite consistent in later sessions. Only time and multiple races will tell us for sure.
On another related note, I checked the Hoosier RAIN tires in their catalog and the new Spec Rain Tire requirement for 2020 is the EXACT SAME tire as we have been using in recent years - so no need to go buy new ones if yours are decent (though I'm not sure how many years back the same tire actually goes). The basic goal I think is to eliminate anything other than HOOSIER rains.
On a side note.. Official Results posted new track records for FV using the Spec Tire. Russell Fredericks now holds the Sebring 12hr lap record with a 2:41.907, eclipsing Laura Hayes' record from Saturday by a couple of tenths. Just for comparison, the old record was 2:36.866 set in 2014 but I don't believe that difference at all reflects the difference in the tires. There were many more things in play than just the tire.
Steve, FV80