The first 30 laps of Sunday night’s Cup series race at Richmond Raceway went as planned for NASCAR by running on wet weather tires. “A credit to Jim France, this was his vision a couple of years ago,” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of …
The first 30 laps of Sunday night’s Cup series race at Richmond Raceway went as planned for NASCAR by running on wet weather tires.
“A credit to Jim France, this was his vision a couple of years ago,” Elton Sawyer, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, said. “He tasked the R&D Center and Goodyear to come up with a tire that we could run in the damp and tonight a success. We were able to get the race started pretty much on time. The guys did a great job with the tire. Goodyear did a phenomenal job.
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“We called the competition caution at Lap 30; that was about where we needed to be. It looked like we might have been able to go another five or so laps, but the main thing is we were able to get the race started, our fans at home got to view the race, as well as the fans here at the track. So, goal accomplished.”
The Toyota Owners 400 was scheduled for a 7:15 p.m. ET start but didn’t take the green flag until about 7:30 p.m. ET. NASCAR declared it a damp start, telling teams to put on the wet weather tires for the first time in Cup Series history in a points-paying race.
NASCAR can use wet weather tires on short ovals to start the race sooner than completely drying the racetrack. There were no windshield wipers, rear mud flaps, or rear lights on the cars, and NASCAR has no intentions of racing when it is still raining.
There were no issues for drivers on the wet weather tires. As the track started to dry, NASCAR informed teams that the competition caution would be at Lap 30 so they could change onto slick tires. The pit stops were noncompetitive, meaning the field was frozen, and no positions were lost or gained on pit road.
“Unlike road courses where pit road is wet, and we’d allow the teams to make the decisions whether to put dries or wets on (the car), on the short ovals, we’re still not to a place where we feel comfortable doing that,” Sawyer said. “We’re looking out for the safety. This is only our third event that we’ve actually run wet weather tires; we ran the trucks at Martinsville (Speedway) last year, (and) obviously (North) Wilkesboro. So, we have another data point.
“That’s one thing we want to work hard on, we want to be able to start the race, put all the competition in the team’s hands, the strategy when to put tires on, when to take them off and the sanctioning body not be in the middle of that decision making. I think we’ll get there sooner than later, but all in all, just a huge success and credit to Goodyear and all of our folks at the R&D Center, and obviously Mr. France’s vision to get us here.”
Denny Hamlin took the checkered flag a few minutes before 11 p.m. ET. It would have been even later had NASCAR not started the night on wet weather tires.
“We could have been sitting there another hour getting everything dry like we have in the past,” Sawyer said. “So, again, huge credit to everyone for putting the effort in to get us to this point with the tires … we’ll learn from this and be able to make better decisions going forward.”
It’s been over nine years since Aaron Rodgers told Green Bay Packers fans to R-E-L-A-X over the team’s slow start to the 2014 season. On Sunday night, after winning the tire war at Bristol Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gabehart …
It’s been over nine years since Aaron Rodgers told Green Bay Packers fans to R-E-L-A-X over the team’s slow start to the 2014 season. On Sunday night, after winning the tire war at Bristol Motor Speedway, Denny Hamlin and crew chief Chris Gabehart had a pointed message of their own for the NASCAR industry and its fans.
“Don’t overreact,” Hamlin said.
Unfortunately as it pertains to the amusement factor as it surely would have gone viral, Hamlin did not spell out his statement as Rodgers did. But the message was still loud and clear. The same for Gabehart’s follow up to Hamlin.
“It’s not bad. It’s OK,” Gabehart said. “Quit beating Goodyear up over things like that. They’re supposed to be part of the sport and make it hard on us. I think that’s the narrative we’ve got to start talking about.”
The Food City 500 was unexpectedly entertaining. Although there were questions about what happened to the racetrack at the end of practice and into qualifying Saturday, it’s unlikely anyone could have foreseen how the race would unfold.
Tire wear, resin and marbles, oh my. It was not a Cup Series race fans, drivers, engineers, or crew chiefs are used to seeing. Cup series races are, shall we say, a bit predictable, with hard tires and teams playing out each fuel run.
But there was no chance of that at Bristol. With such high tire wear, it was 40 to 50 laps before drivers were hanging on or in trouble. A fuel run is 190 laps at Bristol, so tires probably shouldn’t have started to give up until 80 to 100 laps into a run.
The theme of the race was about tire management. Some drivers did it better than others. And that’s where the entertainment came in, because it’s not something drivers are used to doing or people get to see them figure out. NASCAR racing has been more about on-throttle time and laying down qualifying laps while aggressively attacking a corner, so it was new to see drivers having to balance how hard to push and slow the pace of the race down.
“This is the first time the driver played a huge role in a long, long time,” Hamlin said. “Long time. It’s a different philosophy from what we’re used to, which is everyone is just kind of on the gas all the time running the bottom, the shortest way around. Technique was a huge deal today.”
Sunday’s tire dramas weren’t down to failures, unlike the infamous race at Indianapolis in 2008 (pictured). Motorsport Images
Don’t fall for the easy and often-used criticism that the tires failed. The tires certainly didn’t fail. There is a difference between tire failures, which blow out repeatedly during a race and tire wear. Indianapolis in 2008, which so many were quick to reference, was a race of tire failures. On that day, the longest run of the race was about 12 laps before the tires started blowing.
Sunday at Bristol was a race of tire wear, albeit drastic wear. The tires lasted, just not as long as expected or teams would hope. However, there is nothing wrong with tire wear and tire management races; the sport needs more. Afterwards, it seemed nearly everyone could agree that having tire fall off is what racing needs, but for some unexplainable reason, there was a lot at Bristol.
And that’s where the overreaction messages come in. Yes, it was different and unique and unexpected. It was fun, though. It made for a race where no one was yelling about dirty air and being unable to pass.
No, this was a driver’s race.
“I would rather be disciplined as a driver than deal with aero tight,” Ryan Preece posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Hell yeah. More of that. Bristol might not have been something that everyone is used to seeing or understanding, but nothing was wrong with what happened. The short tracks could use more of the show Sunday had.
Who knows? Maybe one day the NASCAR industry will look back and say what happened at Bristol wasn’t planned, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. One of the most entertaining short track races in recent memory wasn’t the result of the horsepower debate or a rules package, but tire wear.
“It was fantastic,” Gabehart said. “The whole weekend was nothing that any of us expected, the driver, the crew chiefs, the engineers, the pit crew, the team, the spotter. From the minute practice was over, we suspected something was going to be different. I think a lot of us thought maybe 80, 100 (laps) in, this place would rubber in and get a little more familiar. But it did not.
“It was a blast. I’m not just saying that because we won. I’m saying that because it was fun to have to do something so unrefined. Everything about our business gets to be 16th of a round and 10th of an air pressure. If you just maneuver this 3 inches, you’ll be perfect. It was not going to be perfect this weekend ever. I think that made for a fantastic show.”
So, just relax, as Rodgers would say. Or don’t overreact, as Hamlin advised. It was wild, but everyone came out the other side knowing something good happened even if no yet knows how.
NASCAR Cup Series drivers were tasked with an unexpected challenge at Bristol Motor Speedway, and most came away with positive reactions. Sunday’s Food City 500 was a tire management race. A quick pace around the half-mile concrete oval produced …
NASCAR Cup Series drivers were tasked with an unexpected challenge at Bristol Motor Speedway, and most came away with positive reactions.
Sunday’s Food City 500 was a tire management race. A quick pace around the half-mile concrete oval produced high tire wear, with some teams experiencing blown tires or cording.
“I have never seen anything like that,” Josh Berry said. “I guess we got our wish with the tires falling off, but I don’t know. They fell off but it’s like they fell off a little bit and then all at once when they went to cords. I don’t know what the change is that you need there. Obviously, they need more rubber on them because we were running on fabric at the end.
“I think I finished with like three flat tires, and the car was on fire in 11th. I kind of had fun, though. I’m not going to lie. That might be the biggest (expletive) show I’ve ever been a part of, but it was kind of fun.”
There was a track record of 54 lead changes. At times, the field was packed together and running side-by-side for multiple laps as if at a superspeedway race.
“It was an interesting day,” Brad Keselowski said. “There was a lot of discipline required, and it was a fun race, to be honest, because you just had to be so smart behind the wheel. It would bite you in a heartbeat, and you had to have a good setup. I think we had a good setup and tried to run the smartest race I could.”
During longer green flag runs, when tire conservation came into play, drivers slowed the pace of the race down to over an 18-second lap time. But Keselowski noted that looks can be deceiving.
“It ain’t no parade lap,” he said. “You’re still hauling the mail. It’s different, but you’re just managing.”
Goodyear felt the tire wear was too drastic and will be digging into the data. NASCAR’s John Probst, however, thought it was one of the best short-track races he’d ever seen, and his initial reaction was not to make changes for the fall race aside from giving teams more tires.
“That was definitely the craziest race I feel like I’ve ever been a part of in the Cup series,” Chase Briscoe said. “We normally just run every lap as a qualifying lap and you might save a little bit, but you’re never going that slow to save tires. It was definitely bizarre how it all played out, and green flag pit stops, and it was like you had 1000 more horsepower than the field when you were on new tires.
“It was nuts. It was unfortunate circumstances from a racing standpoint, but for us to end up 13th for as crazy of a race as it was, we were definitely way better than 13th.”
Justin Haley said he loved Sunday’s race.
“I don’t know what social media says, but as a driver, I thought it was fun because you had to manage it,” Haley said. “You weren’t all-out the whole time, so it was fun to have a major part in how the car ran.”
A few drivers equated Sunday to grassroots short-track racing. It’s not uncommon to be limited on tires or have to manage tires at a local short track on a Saturday night.
“I was joking with the guys that it’s just an oversized Pensacola with tire wear,” John Hunter Nemechek said. “I grew up short track late model racing – places that you had to manage tire wear till the end of the run. We were able to do so.”
Said Keselowski said, “The drivers have been asking for the tires to wear out more and we got it. If we were like a two on a 10 scale, this was a nine or a 10. Maybe there’s a middle ground somewhere. It was definitely a different race.
“I had a lot of fun. I felt like you had to be really smart. It’s good to have something different every once in a while.”
Todd Gilliland said, “For the middle part of the race, it gave me really big flashbacks of a Myrtle Beach race back in the day (where) you see guys go three-wide and there’s just going up (the track), and then you kind of get stuck and there’s nowhere to go. But a place like that it’s different because you kind of wear out and just slowly lose spots. But this, you would really fall off a cliff. It was tough.”
Kyle Larson, however, was the outlier in his opinion of the experience.
“If I knew I was only doing this one time, I would say that was kind of fun,” Larson said. “It was weird to have to manage, guess on how hard to run, guess how each run was going to play out. You were kind of constantly in traffic and managing distance to people in front and behind. So, the strategy side of that in the driver’s seat was kind of fun, but I would never want to do that again.
“To have to run a race like that every week would be not good, and it’s honestly probably a black eye to Goodyear just with all the rubber that couldn’t get laid down and just wearing through tires and all that. It was different and we somehow made the most of it and somehow got to fifth.”
A few other notes from Sunday’s race:
It did not feature the new short-track package teams ran at Phoenix Raceway last weekend. It was the same package run at Bristol last year, the race package NASCAR uses at every track (except where the short-track/road course rules package is run).
The left-side tire was the same one that’s been run at Bristol since the fall of 2022 and the right-side tire ran at Bristol in the fall of 2023.
Resin was sprayed at Bristol in the lower lane of each corner.
The high temperature on Sunday in Bristol was 62 degrees.
Greg Stucker acknowledged that tire wear is a good thing in a NASCAR race, but the amount seen Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway was unexpected and too much. “I would agree [that] tire wear is always the goal,” Stucker, Goodyear director of racing, …
Greg Stucker acknowledged that tire wear is a good thing in a NASCAR race, but the amount seen Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway was unexpected and too much.
“I would agree [that] tire wear is always the goal,” Stucker, Goodyear director of racing, said during a visit to the media center during the final stage of the Food City 500. “That’s what people wanted to see. It creates comers and goers and who manages tires the best. But we thought we were in a really good spot last year with the tire as we raced it in the fall and something is different now. So this is too drastic.”
Cup Series teams experienced high tire wear and cording right from the green flag Sunday. It left drivers slowing down the pace of the race to conserve rubber, trying to make it an entire run on fuel without issue. However, a rash of incidents and cautions resulted in NASCAR allowing Goodyear to release an extra set of tires to the teams early in the second stage.
There were 10 sets of tires available to the teams entering Sunday’s race. In addition to having nine sets for the race, teams could carry over one set from qualifying.
“We tested here last year with the intent to come up with a tire package that generated more tire wear — that was the request from NASCAR and the teams,” Stucker said. “We feel like we had a very successful test. We feel like we had a very successful race in the fall of last year because we did exactly that. We ran a full fuel stop [and] definitely saw wear, but we thought it was spot on. So now we’re trying to understand what’s different — why is the racetrack behaving differently this weekend than what it did a year ago?”
The extreme cording was a result of the track not taking rubber.
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“If you look up in the corners, the tire rubber is being worn off and it’s just not adhering to the racetrack,” Stucker said. “That’s why you see all the marbles up in the corners. And again, last August, it took rubber immediately. As is typical with concrete, you run around under caution it’ll pick it back up. We see that at Martinsville, we see that at Dover, we see that here. But immediately when we go back green, it lays back down and that’s just not happening.”
Goodyear brought the same left-side tire code that has run at Bristol since the fall of 2022. The right side debuted at Bristol in the fall (after the test Stucker mentioned).
“It’s the same [race] package. It’s the same tire combination,” Stucker said. “Obviously, the difference is resin was placed on the lower groove instead of the PJ1. Yet I still think the racetrack should be taking rubber as it did last year. It took rubber immediately during that race.
“It’s still a bit of an unknown as far as why it’s not behaving the same — that being the racetrack. But that’s kind of what we know now. Obviously, everybody is kind of in the same boat but some guys are able to manage through it a little bit better than others. It’s still a tough situation, and we’re going to have to try and understand exactly what’s happening, what’s different, and adjust from there.”
NASCAR had the resin sprayed through the lower groove at Bristol since the track had become top-lane-dominant in years past. It was applied to the track at the start of the weekend and reapplied Sunday morning following the Saturday night Craftsman Truck Series race.
“Everybody got together and expressed concern [about tires], but we decided to wait and see what happened with the truck race,” Stucker said. “The truck race went exactly like we expected it to – it put rubber down immediately, tire wear was in line with what we have historically seen, so it’s a little bit unclear as to why we’re not seeing that same thing today.”
With the specifications of the first of Goodyear’s two 2024 dry-spec tires now frozen and ready for next season, this week’s two-day tire test in Portimao provided an ideal opportunity for eight manufacturers and teams planning to field cars in the …
With the specifications of the first of Goodyear’s two 2024 dry-spec tires now frozen and ready for next season, this week’s two-day tire test in Portimao provided an ideal opportunity for eight manufacturers and teams planning to field cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s new GT division to get a feel for the new LMGT3 rubber and assess new drivers.
It was a busy two days, with teams getting plenty of mileage during the 12 hours of track time, with only a small handful of stoppages.
Of the manufacturers present, Aston Martin with its new-for-2024 Vantage AMR GT3 EVO, Audi, BMW and Lexus with its RC F GT3, were all sampling the LMGT3 Eagle F1 Supersports for the first time.
Aston Martin’s test and development 2024-spec Vantage Evo chassis, which was first spied earlier this month running at Silverstone, was being driven for the most part by Heart of Racing’s current FIA WEC GTE Am drivers. Ian James, Roman de Angelis and Alex Riberas all turned laps, in addition to 2023 TF Sport driver Ben Tuck.
Heart of Racing — Aston Martin’s current IMSA GTD Pro team and future Valkyrie Hypercar entrant — is expected to run one of two Vantages in the WEC next year, should AMR receive its pair of entries. The car has been extremely well received by the drivers that have sampled it to this point. One experienced GT driver told RACER that it was “the easiest GT car” they’d ever driven.
Audi, meanwhile, remains an outside possibility for the FIA WEC, if the full-season entry is capped at 36 cars with 18 cars in each of the two classes (Hypercar and LMGT3) as expected. Nevertheless, a full Audi Sport Customer Racing truck rolled into the paddock and supported French Audi Sport customer Team Sainteloc with senior technical staff and works driver Christopher Haase.
Haase was the only designated driver for the R8 that turned laps in Portimao, with its newly developed and installed closed-loop torque sensors. His feedback on both Goodyear’s tires and level of service was overwhelmingly positive.
“It’s my first time with the Goodyear tires and in this environment,” Haase said. “I have been really surprised — the car worked straight away out of the box. I was so happy with the level of grip and feedback. It was joyous.
“We have put mileage on tires for long runs, and on our first long run it was so promising.”
Team director Frederic Thalamy echoed Haase’s thoughts and described Goodyear’s support as “very impressive.”
The BMWs on site were being run by Belgian outfit Team WRT, which will run both the Hypercar and LMGT3 effort in the WEC for the Bavarian brand next year.
The two M4 GT3s were current-spec cars, not the EVO package that has been out testing recently and will debut in 2025. One car was in its full Valentino Rossi GT World Challenge Europe livery and driven by factory ace Augusto Farfus; the other was a bare carbon chassis that was being shared by Bronze-rated drivers Giorgio Roda, Arnold Robin and Tim Whale.
Tuesday’s running included one near-double stint for one of the M4s, with tire wear and life report to be significantly better than the team had expected.
“The Goodyears are very good –we have been pleasantly surprised, though there is some work to do to get to the point where double stinting is possible,” Kurt Mollekens, WRT’s GT3 program manager told RACER. “It’s been a very constructive couple of days. We will be testing again at Paul Ricard, where we will have a number of other Bronze-rated drivers with us.”
The presence of Lexus was a surprise to some. However, in the background, longstanding Mercedes-AMG GT3 team AKKODIS ASP has been plotting a switch of brands to ensure it can fulfill owner Jerome Policand’s WEC ambitions. With Mercedes believed to be on the outside looking in for next season in terms of entry prospects, a move to Lexus to take up the grid slots that will be handed on behalf of Toyota in LMGT3, is an entirely sensible move.
IMSA champion Jack Hawksworth and WEC champ Jose Maria Lopez shared the car this week. The chassis used is from 2016 and has been campaigned in Japan, the U.S. and Europe ahead of being handed to ASP. It is now the dedicated test car.
ASP received technical support from both Toyota Gazoo Racing and TRD for this rollout. Present in the garage was ex-ORECA technical director Davide Floury, who now forms part of the Japanese brand’s senior technical staff.
The team used the test this week to assess minor aero changes ahead of wind tunnel certification of an evo-version of the car for next season. This is interesting because Toyota/Lexus’ new GT3 challenger is deep in development and already out testing. The plan currently is understood to be for a 2026 debut, though there appears to be pressure from within the project to bring this forward if at all possible.
That leaves Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini and McLaren, who already had extensive mileage on Goodyear’s new tires ahead of the test. Primarily, this week’s to-do list was centred around each team and OEM’s driver selection process, though in the case of McLaren, it was also United Autosports’ first opportunity to run a 720S GT3 EVO on track.
The two Ferraris 296 GT3s tested were run by AF Corse, with Bronze-rated drivers Francois Heriau and Mike Wainwright at the center of attention. Heriau is understood to be seeking a slot in the WEC with the team. Current GTE Am driver Simon Mann also turned laps in the car and the most likely scenario appears to be that the pair will be joined by a factory driver next season.
On the other hand, Wainwright, owner/driver at Porsche GTE team GR Racing, will race with Ferrari going forward. He used the time to get up to speed with the 296 ahead of GR’s Asian Le Mans Series debut and therefore opted to run with Michelin tires, which the Asian Le Mans GT category utilizes.
Proton Competition, joined by members of staff from Multimatic, Ford Performance and M Sport, ran a single Mustang GT3 (pictured, top). It was the #001 test chassis which began life as a mule in the USA.
Dirk Mueller was the headline runner from Multimatic and was joined by a group of other Silver and Bronze-rated drivers with lofty ambitions. This included Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Adam Smalley, Ryan Hardwick, Mikel Miller, Martin Rump, Leon Köhler, Gianmarco Leverato and ex-DTM racer Esteban Muth. Stock car racing veteran Boris Said was present too in full Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Xfinity Series gear, as a potential Bronze for the WEC effort.
Asked if he anticipated being part of Proton’s WEC program, the 61-year-old told RACER: “I could say that would be the most surprising call of all, but Jim Farley (Ford’s CEO) asking me along to this test has already won that prize!”
Iron Lynx’s garage was also filled with drivers on hand to take turns in a pair of Huracan GT3 Evos. Matteo Cressoni, Franck Perera, and Claudio Schiavoni were among the drivers who were suited and booted and drove one car. The lineup for the other included Margot Lafitte, the daughter of ex-F1 star Jacques. She was testing on Tuesday to become a potential Bronze-ranked addition to the Iron Dames roster.
However, Sarah Bovy, the current Iron Dames WEC Bronze, now appears likely to return. She was initially regraded as a Silver driver for 2024 by the FIA, but has since won her appeal and will stay a Bronze for next year. Bovy drove at the test with current teammates Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey.
Finally, United Autosports, McLaren’s WEC nominee for ’24, took delivery of its first McLaren 720S GT3 EVO in the Portimao paddock on Sunday. The team prepped and ran it for two days, all while tending to its multi-car European Le Mans Series and Le Mans Cup effort across the Grand Finale race event of the season and subsequent Rookie Test. The fact that everything went to plan for Richard Dean’s team, which won both ELMS races overall, was a remarkable achievement.
Tom Gamble was on hand to run the car on behalf of the factory and to support Silver-ranked Garnet Patterson and Bronze driver Yasser Shahin, who sampled the car across both days.
Goodyear’s staff supported all eight manufacturers on hand, plus the ELMS LMP2 teams that opted to stay on after the Rookie Test.
With the GT3 tires now in full production and on sale to customers, it will continue to provide technical assistance to any teams wishing to sample the new LMGT3 Eagle F1 Supersports over the winter in private settings.
When will the second dry spec be available? Goodyear told RACER that the target is mid-season in ’24. The tire is being developed for use at the more aggressive tracks on the calendar. The plan is for Goodyear to dictate which of the two specs will be used for each event ahead of time, rather than handing that decision to the teams.
Design of its wet weather LMGT3 tire is also being worked on. The 2024 Goodyear LMGT3 wets, according to endurance program manager Mike McGregor, will be an evolution of the current GTE rain tire, and benefit from lessons learned by the team that looks after its Nurburgring GT3 program.
The winter test schedule for Goodyear is expected to be extremely intense, with runs planned for COTA, Qatar, Bahrain, Barcelona, Paul Ricard, Valencia, Portimao and Monteblanco. The Monteblanco test is particularly notable, as it will be open to everyone and will feature 24 hours of continuous running.
With further growth expected in Hypercar thanks to new entries from Alpine, BMW, Isotta Fraschini and Lamborghini, the LMP2 class being dropped and the introduction of LMGT3, the FIA World Endurance Championship paddock in 2024 will look and feel …
With further growth expected in Hypercar thanks to new entries from Alpine, BMW, Isotta Fraschini and Lamborghini, the LMP2 class being dropped and the introduction of LMGT3, the FIA World Endurance Championship paddock in 2024 will look and feel very different.
But beyond the new class structure and a slew of new teams, there is another significant change in the form of a new tire supply deal that will see Goodyear shift from working in LMP2, to the new LMGT3 class.
Securing this new deal was hugely important for Goodyear and its future at the top end of sports car racing. With Michelin supplying Hypercar for the foreseeable future and LMP2 gone, in order to maintain a presence at the highest level of endurance racing, being granted LMGT3 was imperative, so Goodyear put together a commercial and technological package in the tender process that the ACO couldn’t refuse.
For a major tire brand like Goodyear, shifting its focus from LMP2 to LMGT3 does have significant benefits. In terms of perception, having visibility with a category that features race cars derived from road-going GT cars is valuable. It also works from an R&D point of view.
“Endurance racing is so relevant to what we are doing for road tires,” Goodyear’s endurance program manager Mike McGregor told RACER. “Look at GT3 cars and look at what people are taking on track days, it’s very current and relevant to GT3 race cars.
“This program is not only exciting because we enjoy going racing, but it also gives us knowledge on how to develop a product. What we’ve done within LMP2 and GT in the past is directly relevant to our road tires. For instance, our GT3 RS Porsche compound was specifically developed at the racetrack. We want to do this the right way and put everything into it.”
Developing a new tire for the category on short notice was never going to be an easy task, but Goodyear has a team behind the scenes with decades of experience to draw from to ensure that it produces rubber which allows for good racing and meets the criteria outlined in the future “tire road map” that the ACO and FIA have set out.
Goodyear has less than a year to design, test and sign off tires for the 2024 season, which gets underway next March in Qatar. With the final homologation set for November time, and the announcement made back in April, Goodyear has had to move quickly in order to create the best possible product, which once homologated, is set to be frozen for three seasons.
A huge selection of tires is available at the start of the test, which data and feedback will gradually winnow down as well as drive subsequent development.
At the second of Goodyear’s planned series of major LMGT3 tire tests at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain, a double garage is filled to the brim with unused rubber. The stacks of tires that stretched as far as the eye could see immediately brought it home just how much resource goes into developing a new race tire.
It is a lengthy and taxing process. Creating a tire that works well for all of the 10-plus GT3 manufacturers that could enter cars in the FIA WEC and ELMS requires a lot of trial and error. The overarching aim in terms of capabilities is to produce a tire that can run from cold (without tire warmers), is user-friendly for amateur drivers and can double stint on grand prix circuits and triple at Le Mans.
To get ahead of the curve, ahead of being officially granted the contract to supply LMGT3, Goodyear began working on 2024 tires at the start of this year and had already tested on track before the announcement was made in April. The first stop was Vallelunga, before the test at Aragon in May. Further tests will follow, including one in August at Paul Ricard and a provisional opportunity in October, before a final test open to everyone with the frozen homologated tires in November at a yet-to-be-determined location.
“We start with a few concepts that we want to evaluate,” Joao Coelho, Goodyear’s manager of motorsport testing and track support, said when asked about the timeline. “At the first test, you filter some out. Then you take the ones you see with potential and expand on them at the next test, bringing sets based on that, with additional fine-tuning. Then at the final test, we will decide what we want to go racing with.”
That overarching process may sound simple, but the reality is that there is no margin for error. No time or resources can be wasted if it is to deliver the highest-quality tires for competition next season.
At Motorland Aragon Goodyear was joined by representatives from Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari and a fourth GT3 manufacturer that wished to remain anonymous. Each manufacturer brought a single car (set up using SRO’s BoP values) and a nominated pro driver.
Goodyear brought 40 engineers to direct the process, led by McGregor and Coelho. From that group, each OEM was assisted by two dedicated track support engineers, one vehicle dynamics engineer, and one R&D engineer, all working independently for their manufacturer. Consistency is key throughout the process, so Goodyear tried where possible to ensure the same drivers and engineers were paired up throughout testing.
Over the four days of track action, the job list for all in attendance is huge at a development test. It all starts with a baseline, which in this case is Goodyear’s current European Le Mans Series GTE wet and dry tires. Why the GTE tires and not its Nürburgring-raced GT3 products? Goodyear feels the GTE tires are suitable because they have been proven to work well with a variety of platforms and weight distributions.
In Spain, it was immediately clear why having a strong baseline is so important. With 36 tire specs to test at Aragon, a good reference point was needed in order for Goodyear to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each new compound and construction it was working with.
Another essential aspect to get right when tire testing is the methodology. At a development test, each invited manufacturer is given multiple batches of five to six tires to sample throughout the day. Goodyear’s engineers know which is which, but the test drivers go in blind.
“We won’t tell the drivers in advance what they are testing. We won’t say if it’s a compound or construction group,” explained Coelho. “It’s not to test them or trick them, we just want their honest, unbiased feedback of how they feel driving the car.”
The first part of the day sees each manufacturer receive a batch of five to six specs. After a run on the baseline tire, drivers then take each new spec out for short stints, an out-lap, five flying laps and an in-lap.
When they get out of the car, the drivers are given a detailed feedback form where they are asked to rate each aspect of the tire and compare it to the baseline. Additional detailed verbal feedback is also taken down.
“They all expect a baseline to start, but we sometimes throw another baseline run at some point during the day,” Coelho added. “Again, not to trick them, but to get them to evaluate track evolution during the day.
“Temperatures, wind, sunlight — it all changes and has an impact. By doing that we can re-center where the baseline is.”
After all the work of prepping and testing the tires is done, the development process is just getting started.
The sheer amount of information Goodyear is left to trawl through when testing finishes is mind-bending. It takes weeks to get through it all. Driver feedback is only one element — the data gathered from each car is just as important and even more complex to decipher. Data is shared freely between Goodyear and the manufacturers, to ensure they can gather as much knowledge about each concept as possible.
“We have lap time information, car data information and we will spend weeks after the test putting all the information together,” said Coelho. “From there we can work out which ones we want to carry forward to the next test and which concepts we want to evaluate again.”
For a driver, tire testing is not an easy task. It requires egos to be left at the door, as superior lap times do not matter.
Instead, the most effective test drivers have the ability to produce consistent lap times and translate everything they’re feeling into cognizant feedback. For some, this comes naturally; for others it can be extremely tricky to compare minor differences between tire specs and provide useful first-hand information.
“You have to be honest,” one test driver at Aragon told RACER. “You’re always having to think, does it understeer more? Is it better at high speed? What is it like on entry?
“Five or six laps of running usually gives you a good idea of the tire. When you get used to it, it’s a really good experience and valuable for a driver too. Sometimes you’re testing nearly identical tires, where the lap time difference is only a tenth or two. Sometimes you get a few curve balls, where you get tires that are built for longevity, and the difference can be seconds per lap.
“You just push 100 percent every lap; if you can do that then you will find the differences. You’ll realize in your mind, ‘Oh I was flat through that corner before,’ or, ‘That snapped on exit, that’s new.’
“For pro drivers, that feeling we get is invaluable to tire engineers, because you can look at two lap times that are identical, but only we know how we achieved that. One of the two laps might have been a lot harder to nail. With data alone, you cannot understand the feeling the tires give a driver.”
In tire testing, consistency rather than sheer speed is the driver’s most valuable asset.
Goodyear also has to take into consideration that every driver performs differently and has varying preferences. This is why having a variety of drivers on hand at each test, and not just using one or two, is the most ideal solution.
“It’s important to not go too far down one direction with the tires, as every driver feels differently and knows what they want,” added Coelho.
Then comes the second part of each day, where each manufacturer’s staff, their driver and their dedicated Goodyear engineers decide which tires are good enough to be tested on long runs.
The longer runs give an even better indication of which tire specs are most suitable. It’s all about whittling down the number of tires that should be developed further ahead of the final homologation. But the DNA for tires that don’t make the cut for the long runs are not necessarily dismissed entirely.
“After the test, we will look over the data and it may be that we create new specs using one tire’s compound, the mold of another, and the construction of another, to get the best of multiple specs,” Coleho explained. “We may take two tire specs that work well and blend them together if both of them work well on an individual car. The evolutions could be in construction, like the inside of the tire walls.”
This is why the hard work really takes place between tests when Goodyear works on a new set of specs using learnings from previous runs. The improved specs are conceived, then manufactured rapidly in Germany and undergo a series of safety checks and simulator runs before being handed over to drivers on the next test.
For the 2024 LMGT3 tires, there are still significant milestones to come. As it stands, no front-engined GT3 cars have yet tested with Goodyear. However, this is set to change at Paul Ricard over the summer, with Ford expected to send a Mustang to test ahead of its planned WEC program with Proton. Corvette also plans to run its new-for-2024 Z06 GT3.R on Goodyear tires before the final homologation.
No Bronze or Silver-rated drivers have had a chance to sample Goodyears either. But this may change at Ricard, as Goodyear knows there is real value to any feedback from less experienced hands.
Furthermore, a decision on the number of homologated compounds that will be used during the season hasn’t yet been made. There could be just one dry and wet tire for the season or multiple specs for use at different circuits.
Greg Stucker of Goodyear confirmed this week the company will hold a tire test on the oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway next month. It will be a two-day test held Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 14 and 15. That is after the NASCAR weekend concludes for …
Greg Stucker of Goodyear confirmed this week the company will hold a tire test on the oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway next month.
It will be a two-day test held Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 14 and 15. That is after the NASCAR weekend concludes for the Xfinity Series and Cup Series on the road course.
“We just feel like there’s enough discussion around potentially going back to the oval in the future, let’s go ahead and take the opportunity to get on that racetrack in the old configuration with the Next Gen car,” Stucker told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “We haven’t run the Next Gen car on the oval, we’ve only run the road course.
“I hate to bring it up, but the last time we took a new car to Indianapolis, it didn’t fair too terribly well from a tire perspective. So, we want to stay ahead of that — we want to get a first look at it so that if that decision is made at some point in the future to go back to the oval, then at least we have a good starting point with this car so then we can go from there.”
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NASCAR switched from competing on the oval to the road course in 2020 with the Xfinity Series followed by the Cup Series in 2021. The Cup Series visited Indianapolis for the first time in 1994 on the oval.
“We always feel like we need to go back a couple of times at Indy and test and get prepared for an oval race if that’s going to be the decision,” Stucker continued. “We feel like it’s a good opportunity to go ahead and run, gather some data, see where it stands. We haven’t run that oval for a while, so we’ll see how that surface has aged over the course of a few years since we’ve run there. (It) just seems like a good time to put a mark in the sand and decide what we would need to do if, in fact, we do decide to take that step.”
Next year is the 30th anniversary of the inaugural Brickyard 400 (Aug. 6, 1994). Jeff Gordon won that event, the first of five victories for Gordon at the speedway.
FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 tire supplier Goodyear is set to use historic branding at the 6 Hours of Monza next week, as part of its ongoing 125-year celebrations. The American brand’s current branding on the sidewalls of its LMP2 tires …
FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 tire supplier Goodyear is set to use historic branding at the 6 Hours of Monza next week, as part of its ongoing 125-year celebrations.
The American brand’s current branding on the sidewalls of its LMP2 tires and on its trackside promotional branding will be replaced with its original “Wingfoot” logo from 1898.
This is a continuation of its celebrations that have been taking place throughout 2023. Back in April, it rebranded its presence at NASCAR’s Goodyear 400 event at Darlington Raceway.
“It’s safe to say Goodyear will look a bit different at Monza,” enthuses Ben Crawley, Goodyear EMEA motorsport director. “Changes to the sidewall and trackside branding will bring a strong flavor of Goodyear’s heritage to the circuit. We’re immensely proud of the Goodyear legacy in motorsport and this is a reflection of the time spent at the very top of the sport.
“Every member of the Goodyear family has played a part in our success and I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
In addition to its efforts at Monza in July, its plan is to give the same treatment to its presence at NLS5 (the fifth round of the Nürburgring Endurance Series) next month and the British Touring Car round at Donington Park.
Goodyear has been awarded the exclusive tire supply deal for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s forthcoming LMGT3 class from 2024 onwards by the FIA and ACO, following the tender process that began last December. The American manufacturer won …
Goodyear has been awarded the exclusive tire supply deal for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s forthcoming LMGT3 class from 2024 onwards by the FIA and ACO, following the tender process that began last December.
The American manufacturer won the contract against stiff opposition from at least two rival tire companies during the process. After an early approach from Pirelli, the Italian tire maker withdrew its pitch, leaving French manufacturer Michelin and a third unidentified contender, understood to be Hankook, in the running until today.
The appointment of Goodyear, which is already an exclusive supplier to the FIA WEC LMP2 class, was approved by members of the FIA World Motor Sport Council via electronic vote this week and covers a three-year period starting from the 2024 season.
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“We are delighted to have a highly reputable tire manufacturer on board as the LMGT3 class prepares to hit the track next year,” said Pierre Fillon, president of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest. “The teams will benefit from Goodyear’s expertise in supplying quality tires at a competitive cost. Thanks to Goodyear for their commitment to endurance.”
LMGT3 is set to replace the current GTE Am class in 2024, following the end of GTE platform’s eligibility in the FIA WEC after this year’s season finale in Bahrain.
The announcement today only covers the WEC and not the European Le Mans Series’ LMGT3 class, which is also set to debut in 2024. A decision has not yet been communicated on the tire supplier for the ELMS GT3 class. At present, Goodyear supplies the GTE (and LMP2) category in the European series, while Michelin supplies the ELMS LMP3 category.
“Tires are one of the key areas which will evolve over the next couple of years,” noted Richard Mille, FIA Endurance Commission president. “We have already moved away from tire heating and we will be gradually reducing the number of available tire compounds, therefore having an experienced partner that already knows both the FIA World Endurance Championship as well as GT3 racing is an asset. The fact that LMGT3 cars will run on commercially available, off-the-shelf tires is also a positive development that will bring down the costs for competitors.”
Ranking college football’s toughest road environments
As if Penn State fans needed to be told this one more time, Penn State is viewed as the home of college football’s most challenging road atmosphere for opponents. The latest survey to come to this realization was organized in a collaborative effort by Goodyear and The Player’s Tribune.
The survey was conducted with responses from 68 former FBS college football players spanning the country, and Penn State easily took the top spot on the list for toughest road game atmosphere. Penn State claimed the top spot over LSU and a handful of other programs.
Seriously, was this any real contest here? This video should end the argument here and now.
Penn State’s whiteout was also ranked as one of the toughest road game traditions to face by the same former players. The whiteout was ranked fifth on the list. Iowa‘s pink locker rooms took the top spot and was followed by Wisconsin‘s “Jump Around” before the start of the fourth quarter and Virginia Tech’s “Enter Sandman” team entrance.
