NEWS & ANALYSIS
 “I would be the number-one proponent of making it a true 10-and-a-half-inch tire. I’d like to see them be less than 11 inches (wide) and not even worry about the height,” ORSCA star Craig Miller says. “We’re having to spray and tune this car up harder than we ever have because of the tire issue and everybody increasing their speeds. That just tears up parts and costs us all more money.” |
At ORSCA’s next event after Huntsville, at Albany, GA, this month, Hoosier Product Manager Steve Hudspeth agreed that initial production runs of Hoosier 10-wide tires were spreading more than permitted, but insisted, “Our intention never was to make too wide of a tire.” It’s an issue that Hoosier already is addressing, he added.
“[The data] suggests there is a tendency, depending on what size wheel it’s mounted on, to grow over the limit by about an eighth of an inch,” Hudspeth said. “It starts out at 11-and-a-quarter, 11-and-three-eighths and widens according to these wide wheels these guys are putting them on.”
So, why even allow the tires to be used if there’s doubt regarding their legality?
“In this case, sitting there, unused, these tires fit within the guidelines,” Fenn answered. “The question is, what’s it doing after it’s run? That’s what we need to find out.”
 Ray Donald, tech inspector for ORSCA, checked all Outlaw 10.5 tires for tread width legality at the Albany, GA, event. |
Remarkably, for a class literally defined by its tire, ORSCA’s 2006 Official Rule Book barely addresses where the rubber meets the road. It states only that tires for Outlaw 10.5: “Must be automotive type designed for racing. Maximum up to 10.5 with sidewall designation slick or 13.5 sidewall. Designation DOT tire allowed.” That’s it. No mention of the wider 10.5W designation (missing, by the way, on the initial batch of new Hoosiers), no mention of maximum spread, no mention of maximum rollout (104 inches, according to Fenn), no mention of maximum diameter (33 inches), and no mention of rim size, which is critical to the final spread figure.
Hudspeth implied the current controversy could be traced back to this lack of clarity in Outlaw 10.5 rules.
“The problem I guess we have with the whole scenario is that these tires have been made since March. Nobody would run them, but since Steve Kirk put them on and went fast, now everyone and their brother wants to put them on. So we produced well over 500 tires over the last few weeks and now all of a sudden we find the 12-inch tread-width rule. There never was a published tread-width rule. Supposedly there were rules that were meant, but were never published either on ORSCA’s Web site or their rule book,” he said.
 At Albany, GA, Hoosier Product Manager Steve Hudspeth (right) traded out a set of tires that were spreading too far on Craig Miller’s Outlaw 10.5 Camaro. “He (Hudspeth) saw how wide my tires were getting and said he had a new pair with him that would stay within the specs,” Miller said. “When I told him I had just bought these, he replaced them for free. I’ve got to commend Hoosier for that, he did the right thing.” |
That will no longer be the case when the 2007 season starts, Fenn said at Albany. “I’m working on the exact wording now.”
Kirk, who said he mounts his tires on 15-inch wide rims, insists his tires have never exceeded the limit. A quick check with a tape measure at Huntsville on a pair of clearly used Hoosiers stacked in his pit supported the claim. The tread face was slightly less than 12 inches across. “If the rules state 12 inches, then that’s what the tire manufacturers should use, so that way they’re not giving up nothing,” he justifiably pointed out. “We can get a whole race on this tire and still come under 12 inches.”
Regardless of Kirk’s experience, Hoosiers on several of his competitors’ cars exceeded the 12-inch limit after a pass or two down the north-Alabama eighth miler. Maggart agreed at least some of his new offerings expanded beyond legal limits.
“When this tire is new—and I have measured several of them myself today—it is between 11-and-a-half and 11-and-three-quarters on the rims. The biggest I have seen is 12-and-an-eighth after several runs. They’re spreading slightly out,” he said. “It’s according to how much rim these guys are using on it. If you’ve got a 14-inch rim it’s going to spread to it, but we’ve got them going on 14s, 15s, 16-inch wide rims and that’s going to affect how far the tire does grow.