Bryan from Toyos only should be at Auto Club Speedway this week - I will try & track him down.

A tire change is not on the table now, though I'll see what our long term options are. Thanks for the price point reference. It is interesting that the USTCC is on Nittos.

Nittos may be cheaper but are they as durable? What does the contingency program look like?

I think the RA-1 is a very durable and good racing tire. I would hate for a Toyo representative to read this forum and mistakenly think that we are not extremely grateful for their sponsorship both regionally and at Nationals.

With the Toyo sponsorship, front to mid-pack cars can get tires free or significantly discounted.

I hope any change of tires is significantly researched.

Nittos are the exact same compound as the RA-1 as Nitto is a sister company of Toyo. They have been around for a long time and have proven to last as long as RA-1's. Because of the tire shortage and cost some RM drivers had to run nittos last year (and run pte, but in the same rungroup) and they were identical on track.

There is no contingency for Nitto currently, but in larger regions like RM the toyo buck amount is not large enough to offset the price difference.

Now if they are the pretty much the same tire and compound... why the big price difference?

A tire change in a Spec class is the single most fundamental change there is. Spec classes live or die on rules stability. There are no plans to change tires. The RA-1 is fundamentally a very good tire for what we do, and critically, it is a known quantity. We fought hard to get it back, and are better for it.

It would take a lot of compelling, well-done data,and other good reasons, to start the process of considering a change. Any change of that magnitude, tires or otherwise, would only be after a long period of research, and open rules discussion. Gathering data for long range planning/options is always prudent, but does not mean a tire change is in the works...

Hope that clears things up a bit!

Thank you Erik for stating the obvious.

Toyo RA-1 is a great racing tire with a contingency program.

We have a system that works and it needs to be left alone.

If it ain't broke don't fix it!!!!

cbuzzetti wrote:

It is becoming broken. 3 or 4 years ago the RA-1 was 120 bucks per tire in our size with few supply problems. Now its between 150 and 160 per tire. Where will it be next year? Sure, there's a contingency, but it doesn't knock the price per tire down enough to compete with the NT-01 over the field for the RM class.