By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
MONROE – Evergreen Speedway officials hope a new brand of tire will erase the safety worries that wiped out the start of the NASCAR Super Stocks season opener Saturday.
Drivers voted against racing Saturday after three-time division champion Tom Moriarity blew a tire in pre-race warmups. This, after several complained last week after testing the new American Racing Tire EC-61 that it was slow, slippery and ultimately unsafe.
Track officials this week reached agreement with the McCreary Tire Co. to not only replace the tire with an American Racing EC-84, but also to donate six to each Super Stock driver. The division’s season is scheduled to re-start Saturday at the Monroe track.
“It’s a very, very premium tire,” said Evergreen track management consultant George Wade, who oversees all on-track operations. “Most of the tires that the tire companies are doing right now are economy tires. They try to make it a little cheaper for the racer and try to put a little less rubber on them. The EC-84 has been around for quite a while. It’s always been a proven tire.”
Drivers voted not to race Saturday after an inspection of Moriarity’s blown tire revealed a hole that appeared as though someone had cut it with a knife. The tire has three cords, two of which had ripped.
The slicing look of the hole added to drivers’ previous concerns about the stability of the tire.
“It gave everybody enough reason to be cautious,” track manager Mickey Beadle said. “We wanted to err on the cautious side, rather than to push it on the first night of racing. If they didn’t want to go out, we didn’t want them to go out, either.”
So instead of a 40-lap race around the 3/8-mile oval, eight drivers competed in a 20-lap exhibition race while using tires they’d driven on last season.
Fans who paid for full-price adult tickets got a $2 discount because of the postponement, Beadle said.
After last season, drivers complained to the manufacturer that the EC-30 compound had a sidewall that was too soft. The company sent the EC-61, which had a stiffer sidewall, but one that drivers said is too hard for the abrasive Evergreen surface. As a result, traction suffered.
Moriarity complained after testing last week that the tires gave him a feeling of driving on ball bearings. Others agreed.
“If it doesn’t have any forward bite, it doesn’t have any stopping bite,” driver John Bender said. “But the big problem was the safety issue. A couple tires shredded. Another had a blowout from the inside out.”
The two greatest expenses to race teams are motors and tires. The idea behind a tire with a harder compound is that it won’t wear as quickly and will last longer, thereby cutting costs.
Bender said he didn’t have problems with the EC-61.
Driver Matt Murphy practiced on the tire three times since McCreary delivered the tires in mid-March.
“We tested the week before and had no problems,” he said. “We tested the Thursday before and again had no problems. We were happy with them.”
Wade gave McCreary credit for doing the right thing by donating tires to the drivers.
“We ‘ve tried to make the best of a bad situation,” Wade said. “They stepped up to the plate and did what they had to do. It’s just one of those deals where they knew there was something wrong with the tire and did their best to rectify it. That’s all you can hope in business.”
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