Getting faster, especially in turns, doesn't necessarily translate into
better lap times. I know that sounds whacky but it's true. The most you can
make up by increasing your mid-corner speed at most tracks is perhaps a few
tenths of a second. The reason it's worth learning to do it is that you can
win. If you are fast mid corner and fast on the exit you can pass more
places and you are hard to get by. Nobody passes Peyote in the middle of a
sweeper, because the little bastard is just so fast mid corner. I have time
sheets that show Peyote as the winner with a best lap that's slower than
second or even third place.
For all I know you may be completely right about Hoosiers. All that I'm
saying is that there are a lot of factors that none of us have the ability
to measure. For what it's worth (not much) I think on average that I'm
getting longer life out of Hoosiers than I ever did before. But I've had a
set go away in a single race, and never be quite the same. I don't think
that's a quality issue, I think I was driving differently--in fact I KNOW I
was. I was in second behind Cameron Healy, but it was close second and I
wanted to be in first. All it really takes is one lap (or even just a part
of a lap) to send a tire down the slippery slope, because once you get too
much heat into it, it ain't coming out until after the race. The time
difference to do that damage is probably a few tenths, just as Kas says.
Probably the reason this is so obvious to me is my experience driving a
Radical. With that car a properly scrubbed slick with a single short heat
cycle, allowed to cool completely overnight up off the ground was worth a
solid second at PIR for one race. After that you were one to two seconds
slower but you could count on stable times for about ten heat cycles, and
then they started dropping off. UNLESS you got into a big battle and pushed
hard, or you screwed up your setup for a race or practice. Then the tires
would start the downward spiral right away--they were junk and there was
nothing you could do about that.
Replacing a set of Hoosiers every so often is a joy compared to keeping the
Radical in competitive tires. When I got serious about winning the regional
championship I went through two sets a weekend.
Our cars are not as sensitive, but the same factors are going on.
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