HarryLeach

You're entitled to your opinion.

Fact is there are some classes where tire prep on carpet is actually detrimental (guys are finding with the SJT 1/12 rubber tires that prep makes them take too long to "come in" on a run, so cleaning with sauce after a run and letting dry until the next run seems to be the trend), and other classes it's required (foam) to have any hope of a consistent run. A dry foam tire won't easily conform to the track to generate traction, but overall grip can be adjusted based on coverage area as a result.

For other rubber tire classes, IMO, a lot of people don't understand what the prep is actually doing, which leads to the grumbling. The "no odor" preps used these days isn't actively softening the tire, which would shorten tire life even further than we already see, instead, it conditions the rubber to not stiffen up from heat cycling, which allows the tire to "wiggle" earlier in the run to generate heat and develop traction that will last to the end of a run, it also cleans the tire surface, which is very beneficial for consistency. Even these little tires will have pickup from the track that will hamper traction run to run. Some tires are porous enough to keep some of that compound in the tire with longer soak times, but to know the overall behavior, experimentation between brands is needed.

Thankfully, there are lots of team setup sheets out there for all types of tires and tracks and compounds that include coverage area and "soak" times to help give a baseline.

Now, in the days of the "smelly" preps, a lot of what I just said is out the window. Some of those older chemicals could melt the wheels the tires were mounted to, and overall it's a good thing they're gone. They did/ do generate some traction in some places where racing would have otherwise been impossible, but cars and tires and carpet and appropriate preps have come a long way.