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Analysis: The tire additive bans

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Mike Garrison

0 Jan. 27, 2012, 7:02 a.m.

Main Photo: Analysis: The tire additive bans

1/27/2012

By Mike Garrison

LiveRC.com

There has been a lot of controversy lately in the industry for both onroad and offroad racers regarding the use of tire additives or traction compound. Many major organizations including most recently the BRCA, and various other national, regional, and even local level events have banned the use of these products for a variety of reasons. Racers on the other hand have their own variety of reasons that these bans are unnecessary.

Promoters and organizations often feel that the use of traction products is an unfair advantage for many, and they wish to keep things on an “even playing field” or “spec tire” level. From a racer stand point, traction compound may or may not gain you tenths of a second. If it is legal to use for everyone, is the use of it by some and not others really going to make good drivers perform great and vice versa?

Another major reasoning behind the recent bans is health issues. It has been found that the rather strong scents and “fumes” from these additives are claimed to make racer’s feel ill, or have allergic reactions. While safety is indeed very important, some racers argue that it is no different than being allergic to the guy in the next pits cologne or cat fur on the jacket he just threw down next to you. Nitro racing fumes in general are well-known for burning eyes, nose, and causing headaches, however, nitro racing isn’t banned , but the use of tire additives in nitro racing has been by many.

In any form of R/C racing there are a thousand different things to create strict rules about, but many question why the use of tire additives is targeted as opposed to stricter rules on local, regional, and national levels regarding such things as weight, boost esc’s, spec motors, vehicle dimensions, and the list goes on.

With more and more companies releasing new “odorless” traction additives, the rules and determining factors of proving someone has “sticky tires” will become far more work than the major performance enhancing “cheats” mentioned earlier.

As a racer, what do you feel are the most important rules for track owners, promoters, and organizations to crack down on?

Share your thoughts and opinions below!

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