jrrc- Does this only happen on the 2-stage tires or on all tires? I don't know why it would be exclusive to the wraps. You may want to try washing out the tires with soap and water. Sometimes this works great and sometimes it seems to have no effect. Many people use lighter fluid to clean the tires and claim it works well. Is this a problem that everyone at your track is having?
BigJim- We do guarantee our tires to be free of manufacturing defects, and recently we have extended that assurance to include rim breakage. We did this because last year we had some wheels that were brittle. We have since fixed this problem (so far so good), but will still honor our guarantee. The problem is that many of the wheels we get back have been absolutely brutalized. Someone obviously used them until they were worn down and then they "broke" so they wanted them replaced. I'm not saying this was always the case. The majority of our customers sincerely had problems and we fixed them, but it is frustrating as a manufacturer trying to do right by our customers and have some people abuse the system.
JohnQ- I think Ernie summed it up pretty good. We have a new product that is in high demand at the moment. Trinity saw an opportunity to profit from this by selling them at their booth in Cleveland. Since in previous years we have not been able to sell our tires at this race, we obviously agreed. After all, I do run a business and any opportunity to increase sales is welcome.
I know this is a small industry and any news that seems contradictory raises suspicions. However, the business climate has changed in our market. With the advent of the internet and increased foreign competition, we must seize any opportunity to boost sales. Trinity is not immune to this situation, nor is JACO. I can understand rumors getting started, but ours is a relationship of convenience. I assure you, we have not been bought. I know this is disappointing to conspiracy theorists, but there are plenty of other rumors out there to conjure up.