Tyred of wondering

[oily oaf]

Call me a bit dim if you like but ive often wondered why wet tyres are not used in oval racing both indycar and nascar. Is it because the spray from the car in front would reduce visability and cause an unnaceptable degree of danger at the high speeds reached on ovals? Put me out of my misery.

[mirwin]

Nascar cars are too heavy. They would destroy a set of wet tires in a couple laps.

[racer69]

NASCAR's have raced in the wet in Australia (at the Gold Coast Indy) before.

I thought it was to do with the banking.

[Flatspot]

In order to maintain proper treadwear a rain tire must make both left and right hand turns.

[marcus]

I'll go for that one Flatspot , I have no idea I just thought that an oval and rain dont mix simply because of the walls , at least on a road course you may or may not have room if you spin before you hit anything , but on an oval your going straight to the wall

[MA2]

Driving in the rain on an oval is just waaaaaay too dangerous! You can liken it to driving on ice with slicks - you'd have to go so darned slow that everyone in the stands would go to sleep.

[oily oaf]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I favour the uneven tyre wear theory from Flatspot it sounds logical to me.
How did it go at the Gold Coast Indy Racer and how come Nascar allowed them to race in wet conditions. Was it an exhibition race or something?

[marcus]

well simply its a street course at the Gold coast so the problem of an oval isnt quite there , allthough there are walls everywhere , this was a few years back now and I cant quite remember what happened , but nothing to dramatic happened I believe , but Im sure there were several spins.

just out of curiosity if its raning at Watkins Glen for the Nascar road race do they have a wet tyre or they just dont run at all ???

[Snrub]

It's the danger factor. Get loose normally and it's hard to collect. Get loose in the wet and in to the wall you go.

Note - CART has wets and they do not race in the rain on ovals.

[Nomad]

Yeah, it's because of the stability factor that oval racing isn't done in the rain.

If you ever wanted an example of what a rain-race at Rockingham or the Lausitzring or somewhere here in the States would look like, just watch all the mayhem at Curva del Sol during this year's Brazilian GP. There would likely be less than five cars running after 50 laps.

[Jordi]

And wouldn't all the water go down to the apron, plus making it very dangerous down there?

I think NASCAR raced under the rain at Suzuka, in one of the exhibition races they did in 1998.

[hoonboyz]

Originally posted by oily oaf
Thanks for the input guys. I think I favour the uneven tyre wear theory from Flatspot it sounds logical to me.
How did it go at the Gold Coast Indy Racer and how come Nascar allowed them to race in wet conditions. Was it an exhibition race or something?

it was an Aussie NASACAR race (if that makes sense[]),mainly yr old US chassis shipped out and raced here in Australia at our 1 Oval track ( the thunderdome)and a couple of Road courses by Aussies , so no "Official" Nascar presence, and most Nascar races here at Indy ended in Tears / No Brakes after 2 Laps{] it was Fun to watch and LOUD[}

[DNQ]

It was an Aussie NASCAR race, might have been 1992?

[Lee Janotta]

It's definitly the stability issue. No damn way you've get through a single turn on an oval without taking out 2/3 of the field.

And NASCAR wouldn throw the red in a race at Watkins Glen or Sears Point. They've got no lights and no windshield wipers, which makes wet tires a moot issue.

[Jay]

Also the water would be running down the banking makign it a skating rink. Going 200 mph into a slippery corner can only lead to bad things. No doubt you could run a race in the rain, but like a road course, there will be more accidents, but on an oval, there's almost no such thing as a small accident. Actually, in some ways, for the IRL it might not be much different from a normal race. But, for Nascar or Cart, it would mean a lot of huge crashes.

I seem to remember PM'ing you about comments like that last one.

[racer69]

Originally posted by DNQ
It was an Aussie NASCAR race, might have been 1992?

Correct, the race was run after the completion of the Indycar race, which had the downpour halfway through.

The wet NASCAR race was won by Greg Hansford from Charlie O'Brian, both in Oldsmobile Cutlass'.

Hoonzboyz - No official NASCAR presence, but Bob Jane did have the only contract for any 'NASCAR style' championship that allowed him to actually use the NASCAR name.

Jordi - NASCAR qualified in the rain for the Suzuka exhibition race in 1997, Mark Martin got pole from Jim Richards. May have rained in 1998 for the race, i'm not sure though.

[Jordi]

racer, I was not sure, I had only seen pictures, so it was probably qualifying in 1997. In any case, would have been cool to see Martin getting that pole under the rain.

[racer69]

Further to this, there has been an open wheeler race on a wet oval circuit.

On a day of puring rain at the Calder Park Thunderdome in 1992, a 10 lap Formula Vee (think Formula Ford with 1200cc VW engines) race was held on the heavily banked oval. The race passed with no accidents and was actually a decent race.

[sgw2]

NASCAR will try rain tires at Watkins Glen if it rains. They may try also at Sers Point (which I will go to next week).

Ovals are just way too dangerous. There are too many cars bunched together and visibility is already an issue. Plus you have the walls. A race in the rain would make that horrible F1 pileup at Spa a few years ago look mild. Or that miserable CART race at Surfers look safe.

Bad idea.

[Muzza]

Originally posted by Nomad
(...)If you ever wanted an example of what a rain-race at Rockingham or the Lausitzring or somewhere here in the States would look like, just watch all the mayhem at Curva del Sol during this year's Brazilian GP. There would likely be less than five cars running after 50 laps.

Just the pickiest correction - as we Brazilians are rather sensitive about people mixing Spanish and Portuguese (the latter happens to be our official language): the proper name of the Interlagos turn that housed a mayhem during this year's Formula 1 race is Curva do Sol.

Cheers,

Muzza

[oily oaf]

E Verdade amigo! Com os meus melhores comprimentos
Oily

[flatlander_48]

To the best of my knowledge, NASCAR has only tested rain tires in practice. Dale, Sr and Mark Martin tried them out. I don't know about Suzuka, but they have tested here at Watkins Glen.

Ovals are just too fast to run in the rain. You would hydroplane before you knew it.