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Old 02-21-2005, 01:11 AM
  #712  
Speedo
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John, I'd like to address some of the issues regarding the US versus Europe in your post.

First of all - foam tires. Foam tires were adopted over a year ago as the standard for mod touring cars on carpet. I know I was happy with the switch away from rubber, and almost everyone I know feels the same way. I don't think running foam tires puts US drivers at a disadvantage in any way, especially considering that Snowbirds were run on foam tires. In my experience, if you are off with your setup running rubber tires, you will be way off the pace, however foams are more forgiving in that regard. On the other hand, I don't remember it being any easier or harder to get the right setup on rubber tires compared to foam. On top of this, rubber is still the US standard for races run on asphalt, putting US racers at no disadvantage there.

I won't get into track size and layout, as I have only run on-road on carpet tracks. Although I don't have any experience running on larger tracks, I don't think smaller tracks would lead to any disadvantage. In fact, it seems to me that a more technical layout would be harsher on driving and setup than a flowing layout.

Also, Snowbirds is in the minority with it's single main format. Most races run in the US use the triple A-main format.

Josh
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