OK, let's play a little "what-if". I've been reading the memoirs of
Frederick the Great recently, and he was really into devising plans for
imaginary campaigns against the Austrians, the French, the Swedes....
I'm going to play the same game for a bit.
It's January, 2002. STS and SM are fully recognised National classes, and
thanks to Danielle Engstrom's Sport Compact Car column and a concerted
effort by the SM folks, the mainstream media coverage of Solo is up, and
90% of that coverage is on STS and SM.
BF Goodrich, their bottom line suffering from a year's total absence from
Solo, decides that they want to re-enter Solo, and they want to make as big
a splash doing it as they possibly can. So they go look up their old friend
and long time business associate Roger Johnson. They agree to supply Roger
with a set of Scorcher TA tires (in yellow, of course) that while they are
marked IDENTICALLY to production Scorchers, are in fact treadwear 100
instead of 140. (Note here that I'm treating treadwear as a meaningful
number, which it patently is not, but anyway)
In real terms, the tires are worth, oh, half a second over the best of the
current crop of street tires.
So Roger goes out, and preps his 1972 Pinto, and starts running ProSolos
with them. Roger may be an old fart, but he can still drive (well, unless
it's a Prowler, but anyway) What's more, he has access and opportunity to
more testing sessions than anybody else in the sport, if he chooses to use
it. The Pinto gets dialed in a hurry, and Roger starts winning. Good car,
good driver, and special tires that are *close to production specs, but
just a little better*
Of course, the spectacle of the old guy in a Pinto beating the young
whippersnappers in STS on BFGs makes for good press, so it gets press.
Well, all this getting beat steps up the pace of STS development. Money is
spent. Research is done. And Roger's next set is treadwear 95.
Roger keeps winning. Maybe the margin of victory is down a little bit -
he's winning by 3 tenths instead of 5 tenths - but he's still winning, and
BFG is still reaping the whirlwind.
The Rest of STS works harder. Spends more money. Shaves more tires. Half
the field is now running Scorchers, and BFG is providing them with the
first run treadwear 100 tires. Mark Allen orders his with gold stripes,
instead of yellow. The gap narrows somewhat. The top of the field is all
BFG.
Nationals. BFG is selling Roger's treadwear 95s off the truck. Roger,
however, has a set of treadwear 75s - and takes the 2002 STS championship.
The top 10 is all BFG. BFG takes out a HUGE ad in SCC, and Scorcher sales
soar.
2003. Roger goes back to SS. And all the Scorchers made since Nationals are
treadwear 135 - and stay that way for the next 5 years.
Think it can't happen?
Now, Frederick used to set up these neat paper plans for battles, and then
he'd switch sides and play the enemy side, so as to try and find the ways
his plans could be defeated. Let's do the same here - if you're an STS
competitor, how do you stop Roger?
- The tires are stamped "treadwear 140"
- They look like the Scorchers you bought from the 'Rack in all respects
- There is no published spec ANYWHERE that relates anything measurable to
"treadwear", so a durometer is useless
- And this IS Roger Johnson, not just some hack nobody has ever heard of
before, and the margins aren't that large....
- And maybe BFG is really devious, and the rubber in the outer treadblocks
is of treadwear 140 durometer
- And maybe ROGER is really devious, and he only uses his "specials" when
he needs to, relying on his talent and car setup skills for the most part
- And even if you catch him, at Nationals, with tires that are
durometer-tested as 50% softer than everybody else's, HOW DO YOU PROVE THAT
THE TIRES ARE ILLEGAL WHEN THERE'S NO SPEC?
- And even if you really really suspect BFG is up to some skullduggery, and
you place a durometer spec in the 2003 rules, the damage is already done.
Conclusion? He can't be stopped. Everybody else in the class is just
a-going through the motions, weither they know it or not.
See the problem here yet?
The status quo will not work. It is way, way too vulnerable, and you guys
are way, way too attractive - and your options are limited. In this little
schenario, you'd be hard pressed to catch the skullduggery, and even
caught, it'd be impossible to prove. No proof, no sanctions. No sanctions,
NO TEETH.
See?
DG
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