I used to only run the Toyos and did pretty good on them. Did very well in a
ProSolo a number of years ago and newbie that I was, was disappointed when
everyone else received their trophy at the awards presentation, I found out
they were winning BFG money or Hoosier tires. I switched then, figuring I
could win just was well on the BFGs but I got money for them.
The contingency money does come into play.
A couple of years later I switched back to Toyos. The reason was this. I
found it a challenge and kinda fun to see how well I could do on the "wrong"
tire. Plus I like how the Toyos feel on my car for my style. I did change my
mind later as I realized that the Toyo does not do well on very slippery
surfaces or when it was cold. I decided to get more serious and went to
Hoosiers.
I have won my share of Hoosiers now, but it no longer comes into play. The
price of competing nationally is signifigantly high, that the chance of
winning a couple or four tires is not a big factor. It's nice, but not the
reason. I ran Hoosiers to increase my chance of winning.
Now ironically, I have been running again on Toyos since September locally
(except yesterday because I am trying to use up old Hoosiers). I think I do
pretty well on the Toyos, even full tread. I have consistently been faster
than local CS times. Late yesterday, I started seriously contemplating going
to Nats and running Toyos. I think they would do pretty well. I would not be
able to win, but I bet I could trophy.
Anyway, contingency money is not an issue if you can't win on the tires. I
like the Toyos and I think I can be in the trophies with them, but winning
at Nats? I don't think so. But I can run the same tires all year on Toyos. I
have been thru 6 sets of Hoosiers this year, and I normally do not run the
Hoosiers locally.
Randy Chase
> I've been following a thread on a list serve discussing the
> Merits of the Toyo RA1 vs. the Khumo V700. The discussion was
> somewhat divided on which was the better tire. BTW, the
> discussion was in specific reference to autocross performance
> only. So, I got curious and looked over the Nationals results,
> but didn't see any Toyos at all in any of the stock classes.
> Someone on the thread asserted that this is only because Toyo
> doesn't offer contingency like Khumo and Hoosier. They maintain
> that if Toyo offered a contingency and Khumo did not, then we
> would see a lot of Toyos and no Khumos because "the majority at
> Nationals bases their tire choice on the contingency programs offered".
>
> I'm a little confused here. Not that I've had a chance to burn
> through many race tires in my short autocross career, but I never
> thought of contingencies when trying to make a good tire choice.
> All I want is what I think will be the best performing tire that
> I can afford. Is this unusual? How do you guys (and gals) do
> your tire selection? Is it mostly based on contingency?? What
> about the "average" Nationals competitor? Maybe I need to
> re-think how I select tires...
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