Hoosier Product Bulletin

[blacksheep-1]

HOME / NEWS / HIGH BANKED OVAL ROAD COURSE RECOMMENDATIONS
High Banked Oval Road Course Recommendations


Hoosier Tire’s circuit racing tire line is designed for flat road course applications throughout the country. However, as several sanctioning bodies include high banked oval road courses in their race schedules, Hoosier Tire customers must take note on the car and tire setup differences when running on these high banked oval road courses. These recommendations must be adhered to or tire overloading will occur. High banked oval road courses include, but are not limited to, Daytona International Speedway, Texas World Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club -Fontana Speedway, Homestead – Miami, Lowes Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, New Hampshire Int’l Speedway, Pikes Peak International Raceway, Pocono Raceway, Texas Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen Int’l. Although Watkins Glen Int’l is not a high banked oval road course, it does offer high speeds and loads similar to high banked oval road courses. Cold starting pressures also need to increase even further when an aero package used. This will produce additional down force and can damage race tires if air pressure is not increased.

GT1 16” Slicks – R70A
Air Pressure: (Cold) 22 – 23 psi (Hot) 30 – 32 psi+
Camber Settings: Front: -2.0 degrees or less Rear: -2.0 degrees or less
GT PRO Slicks – S, MS, M
13” – 16” Wheels
Air Pressure: (Cold) 22 – 24 psi (Hot) 28 – 30 psi+
Camber Settings: Front: -2.0 degrees or less Rear: -2.0 degrees or less
18” Wheels
Air Pressure: (Cold) 26 – 28 psi (Hot) 34 – 36 psi+
Camber Settings: Front: -2.0 degrees or less Rear: -2.0 degrees or less
DOT – R7 / A7
Air Pressure: (Cold) 30 – 32 psi (Hot) 40 – 42 psi+
Camber Settings: Front: -2.0 degrees or less Rear: -2.0 degrees or less
Historic Stock Car – R75A
Air Pressure: (Cold) 23 – 25 psi (Hot) 30 – 32 psi+
Camber Settings: Front: -2.0 degrees or less Rear: -2.0 degrees or less

Please contact us before utilizing any Hoosier Tire not listed above at the tracks listed. Being diligent in monitoring air pressure and your tire temperatures throughout your sessions at high banked oval road courses, this is key for our tires to work properly. If you have any more questions about these recommendations, do call Hoosier Racing Tire at 574-784-3152.

 

[bob]

When we are Daytona runoffs did pheonix racers follow those recs? No one I talked to followed the hoosier recs.. I did not either. Those recs above came out when we went to Daytona. I think SCCA or someone was concerned. My questionable math had my T2 corvette overloading the tires on the banking. For the 1st time I have ever experienced we had 2 warmup laps before the green flag. I guess that was to make sure all of us running "under-inflated" were at least up to some minimum temperature and pressure. Thoughts?

 

[Fabman]

This is interesting....anybody actually run these settings?

DOT – R7 / A7
Air Pressure: (Cold) 30 – 32 psi (Hot) 40 – 42 psi+
Camber Settings: Front: -2.0 degrees or less Rear: -2.0 degrees or less

 

[ajaquilante]

The only car we had an issue on was my T1 car. Quite interesting when you pick up a vibration going 3 or 4 wide passing slower cars up against the wall exiting Nascar 4, and for it to pop a couple seconds later. That was a bit of a moment.. We ran the pressures higher on all the cars, but only changed camber on my car since it was the only one with a "wild" amount. Daytona is a special beast in its speeds and loads... Homestead while still quick,is not due to the lower banking.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Good lord... have been running 36/34 hot for a while.....I thought the Hoosier tire pressures recommendations where too high.. Maybe have to have a rethink.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Oops, just read it again... thats for High Banked oval tracks....

 

[docs302]

I asked this very same question a few months ago when I was planning a trip down to Daytona. I knew there had to be significant adjustments made to pressure and camber. I think 2.0 is about what I was thinking but 42 psi+ was not but it makes sense.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Thanks Blacksheep, I think there has been questions and concern by many for quite awhile and no one seemed really sure. As usual, Tire recommendations, pressures, and , more keep coming from the TMO Tire Guru, Mr. Blacksheep Numero Uno!!

 

[captdistraction]

This is interesting....anybody actually run these settings?

DOT – R7 / A7
Air Pressure: (Cold) 30 – 32 psi (Hot) 40 – 42 psi+
Camber Settings: Front: -2.0 degrees or less Rear: -2.0 degrees or less

"YOU'LL FOLLOW THOSE RECOMMENDATIONS OR ELSE"

-your friendly hoosier tire dealer

 

[captdistraction]

A7/R7 40-42 hot is insane. I target 32-33 hot; The normal care and feeding guide has similar recommendations. I could see going to 36 hot for Daytona, but many of these guides are written like you have an infinite tire budget and the last few tenths of a laptime do not matter.

 

[Fabman]

A7/R7 40-42 hot is insane. I target 32-33 hot; The normal care and feeding guide has similar recommendations. I could see going to 36 hot for Daytona, but many of these guides are written like you have an infinite tire budget and the last few tenths of a laptime do not matter.

I was originally using the Hoosier recommended (non-Roval) settings but was encouraged to soften up my tires quite a bit by basically everyone I talked to.....which I finally did and the grip and tire life got much better.
I couldn't understand why the manufacturer of a racing tire would make recommended settings that were not accurate so I rigidly stuck to them until I finally relented.

 

[captdistraction]

sell more tires is my best guess.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Seems like a insane tactic since you just piss of your users!!

 

[bob]

"YOU'LL FOLLOW THOSE RECOMMENDATIONS OR ELSE"

-your friendly hoosier tire dealer

Funny! Once during an SCCA race the Hoosier guy comes by to all us Vettes paddocked together running A6's at the time. We got lectured for low tire pressures and not using the proper R6 tire for a road course. Nobody listens to the Hoosier guys except the Porsche guys. When I tell a Porsche racer I'm sprint racing the "A" tire they snicker and think I'm an idiot. To a Porsche guy I'm the scum of the earth, 1) drive mustang, 2) races "A" tire, 3) I must have body odor?...I get Pre-covid social distancing.

 

[blacksheep-1]

All I'm going to say is that these tire recommendations will keep you out of trouble. IT's funny AJ mentioned Homestead, to me that's the track that gives me the most heartburn, and it's a self inflicted wound. Back when the Mustangs could run a wider tire (I think it was a 295) and a bigger restrictor, it was not as much of an issue, because the drivers had to "breathe" the car in the middle of the corner, well SCCA decided to make the Mustangs run a 275 tire, and a smaller restrictor, the net result is that the driver can now flat foot it through the oval.. and that's an issue, smaller tire, no let off in center corner. One thing that road course guys seem to struggle with, especially when running on an oval, is the concept of not overheating tires, they just don't get it, for the most part, and it keeps me on my toes.. rather anti acids. I'm talking the T2 and T3 class cars, the T1s with more open rules and bigger tires don't seem to have much of an issue at Homestead. They have to deal with Daytona which is more of a study state cornering and much higher speeds. Generally, the higher pressure will keep you out of trouble, if you run nitrogen do a lot of temp/pressure checks in practice and stay on top of things like the track and ambient temps (among a few other things) you might be able to fudge those numbers a bit to find a performance edge, but you are delving into the dark arts at that point, So I would always recommend the Hoosier numbers. Especially for HPDE guys that aren't running in competition and don't have the resources for a dedicated tire specialist.
(As I recall AJ's tires at Daytona were "a matched set and staggered special" or something like that)
The most gratifying part of that deal was watching a certain BMW, that tried to run the same compounds we did, blow the tires off the car on the front straight, while trying to run AJ down.
Like AJ said "We were smarter than they were".

days of thunder "stagerred special" - Search Videos

www.bing.com

 

[bob]

All I'm going to say is ...

I wish I had a tiny bit of Pheonix knowledge. Instead I have ignorance and "God protects the stupid"...so far.

 

[blacksheep-1]

I wish I had a tiny bit of Pheonix knowledge. Instead I have ignorance and "God protects the stupid"...so far.

look up the thread on pressure mapping then, I think that would help you a lot
A lot of stuff I do is proprietary in nature, and I'm not going to go off the reservation and give you some recommendations that are contrary to what Hoosier (or any other manufacturer says). I will keep you as safe I can. Sometimes, these guys come off the track with blistered tires, that's a close call, the Astin tires came off after double stinting the right side tires with blisters on them, we could've lost the championship on that, several times cars have won events on blistered tires so there is always a balance and limits to be pushed.
Things like that keep me up at night. after a day at the track, and dead tired, it's not uncommon for me to have the days notes spread across the bed at the hotel going over numbers, and I determine race pressures by 3 different means, hopefully, they match, or are at least close.
That's why I get the big bucks.. lol

 

[bob]

I have read that thread Rob. Thank You.

 

[Fabman]

I've updated my pyrometer from the late 80's "stick and script" model to a modern "memory/auto averaging" unit.
Back in the day I had a full crew with 2 persons dedicated to tire temps, one with the probe and the other scripting the pressures down on a chart for me to read, well practiced and accurately. Now that its just my son and I it's become very difficult to manage. You can't just pull someone out of the peanut gallery and expect any kind of accuracy. It takes practice to get right.
This deluxe memory model makes it a one man job and never miss hears a number or writes it on the wrong line.
The box even got a little upgrade.

Managing temps/pressures is going to be a lot easier this year.

 

[blacksheep-1]

That's exactly the one I own, I keep one with each team with a digital pressure gauge and a backup gauge. I own them, they're mine, no one uses them unless they ask me first, I send them all back to Longacre at least once per year for a checkup, if I drop one, it goes back to Longacre. I expect all of them to read within .1 of each other.