Why dirt racers cheat with tires, and how they do it

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What exactly is tire doping or soaking and why do dirt racers do it? We'll get into that, plus news from XR and more.

Drop a comment below and let me know your thoughts on today's show and topics.

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#dirtracing #tires #motorsports

Today's Topics:
0:00 Intro
0:20 What exactly is soaking or doping tires?
5:02 Carson Macedo's top ten streak
7:02 XR makes schedule changes
8:15 Streaming schedule
8:29 Outro

[MDAdams]

I like a durometer rule Do what you want but you must punch(whatever number the factory tire does new -5 or so points) It lets us run used tires much longer and saves us money

[woofersd]

Back in the day, I was on a pit crew. That had treated tires. IMCA class. But then again we also ran nitro in the fuel. Had a blast up at Husets.

[EmazingGuitar]

I have an idea. If it’s a better tire, why not standardize it for everyone else? It would make sense to have the option to have bragging rights that every team is using YOUR tires for the season because they want to use your better tires. And it incentivizes other teams to make an even better tire and you get more exciting racing year after year with teams competing for having the “tire of the year”.

[thomaskaech]

Thanks for explaining the tire doping issue, that was helpful.

[DeeB]

The tire doping thing has always been a weird issue for me. Like what happens if you run over an oil puddle or spray brake clean on the birdcage and accidentally hit the tire. The reports are always so vague, like “not consistent with original analog” or something. Never go into detail on what compounds are in play. UV exposure has been proven to break down the compounds and give false positives. I say let tire companies loose and do whatever. It’s cheaper than the trick suspension crap that everyone is rabbit holing these days.

[LgnSknks]

Love the vid.

I remember as a kid growing up around the PNW Open-Wheel asphalt scene, there were constant allegations and finger pointing throughout the pits for tire soaking.

[gentjim]

Great segment on tire soaking Justin. Not sure about the dirt scene, but it's been around in pavement racing for decades. There are a number of home recipes besides the commercial stuff, as well as how it's applied. In my pavement late-model days we had a rotisserie setup that rolled the tire in a pan for a set period of time to either bring back a used tire or make a killer qualifying set! Others just rubbed it on the surface, or used diapers soaked and then shrink wrapped onto the outside. Some tracks had mechanical sniffers that detected chemicals or, believe it or not, had trained dogs to check legality. Nowadays, in some classes tires are locked up between nights and limited allotments for the season are the norm. As for Roth, they may have felt they could get away with it being a new tire this season.

[georgiaracingpodcast]

Depending on where you live, city water is probably an effective tire softener!😂

[outfitsgarage]

Toluene is one chemical that softens rubber. The old tire and wheel company MRT used to sell tire Softener which was made of Toluene and transmission fluid.

[MichiganManiak]

My dad used to use tire sauce on his late model. He built a rig to spin the tire with an old treadmill motor while he applied the sauce with a paint roller.

[HRM.H]

Some drifters used to bleach their competition tires, in hopes it would create more smoke, but the opposite would happen. The bleach made the rubber crack and dry out, making them lose alot of grip.

[rcmaniac]

I race RC cars as a hobby and tire doping is legal, one of the best products we use is liquid wrench, most of these tire sauces or dopes are petroleum based and soak deep into the rubber and help soften it over the lifetime of the tire

[sprintcarfan]

I know its a lot of work for you, but I'd love to see you add NARC to the analytics section. Keep up the good work.

[K-Effect]

It’s called “The World of Outlaws” but there’s rules

[rayisland]

I know a guy that was soaking tires 25 years ago. He would use them for heat races or time trials.

[rickreiff]

ATP Automotive AT-205 with some automatic transmission fluid mixed in works nice. (not that I would know) Certain series techs/officials, will always cut the samples from the same place on the tire, usually from the outside edge, sometimes from the inside edge. So, if you wanted to gamble, treat the center of the tire and leave the edges alone, might just get past the lab test. (not that I would know either)... I wish dirt racing would go back to the way things were back in the 80's & 90's, not as expensive, not as technical with the rules and the cars, wide open run what ya brung!

[anthonykeith]

Well the high limit just postponed there event for tomorrow, but the good news is it’s not cancelled which is good

[tylerwilliams]

I’ve heard some guys say just cleaning a tire with turtle wax or other cleaning products can make a slightly used tire test dirty on a blue ridge labs test.

[jimwilson]

Never used the chemicals as most are highly toxic. I was fortunate that 2 years after i started with this team i had 2 trailers with 3 row tire racks on each i had compounds from 05 gum balls to 55 bricks. I did more with tire groover. Tires pubched like they were supposed to but during race ran softer.

[SouthJerseyBaitReviews]

This is kinda funny cause this type of deal is very common in RC car racing some places don't allow it while some don't care but. You defitnely do notice a difference in performance of the tire at the places that allowed it. It usually gave more grip I wouldn't say the lifespan though ever improved on the tires we applied it to. An actually made the rubber usually softer so they tend to get worn faster from what I noticed lol.