>Everyone,
>
>I just dug out my '89 rulebook. Can't find '88 (if I ever had one --
>that was my first year).
>
>Section 11.3.B is marked with a change bar, so this may be the first
>time it
>appeared:
> No tire model will be approved for competition during the rest of
> the year after April 30 of each calendar year. ... A tire model
> will normally be determined by the designation in the Tire Guide.
> However, any of the following changes or similar changes (as
> determined by the Solo Events Board) will also be considered to
> represent a new tire model for eligibility purposes, even if the
> designation does not change: Change of tread pattern at either full
> or partial tread depth; characterization by the manufacturer or
> distributor of a tire as "new" after April 30.
>
>So there you go. That rule was in effect in 1989. My 1991 book appears
>to have the same wording (though it's in chapter 13 then). Can't find
>1990.
That rule came about due to the adventures in 1988 where they changed the
tire completely mid-year (I think it was shortly before nationals) from the
old street Comp T/A tread pattern (and I suspect carcass and everything) to
the 204/206-generation tires, with the assymetrical tread. They still
called it the "Comp T/A R1". Protests were filed, and after much gnashing
of teeth it was eventually determined that the way the rule was written (I
don't have the '88 rule book handy, sorry) that since they kept the same
name, it was legal. I believe a consideration in that was that a finding
against the tire would hurt a large number of competitors. This was the
first tire BFG had readily available to the masses which was really
competitive - a significant evolutionary change. The situation in '89 was
that they kept the tread pattern, but changed compounding (REALLY hard to
enforce since when you get right down to it no two tires are EXACTLY the
same there, particularly if they are from different dates; heck, the same
tire will be different AT different dates) and the carcass. But you may
notice that they were smart enough NOT to designate it as "new". So we had
rule which was not well written replaced by another rule which was not well
written. I believe that after this, they spent some time talking to tire
people about how to write the rule....
Paul and Meredith Brown
MR2: "Not the easiest car in the world to work on"
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