jeremy - the tires we run in wgt (lilac) come from the same family as purple/pink. they have a tendency to gather fuzz and other debris (tire dust) from the track. the groove is generally free from this debris due to the number of cars that travel over a small area on the track. ever watch a nascar race when they drive by the on track camera and all the crap rolls across the ground? same thing here. when your tires wear, they are actually being pulled apart by the friction between the carpet and the tire. little pieces of foam are flying everywhere(same stuff as what builds up on the under side of the body). it also falls off when people like you and ryan and brent hit the walls, which is why people should clean their bodies. add this to the natural fuzz that gets pulled out of the carpet and you get a bunch of crap that sticks to the tire and decreases the surface area of the tire to the carpet. which over the course of the course of the run takes steering away from the car. in other words. stay in the groove and quit hitting shit.

you see all of us "scrub" our cars in before we run. this does the same thing as running a few laps around the track. when you set your car down and it feels like it is on ice, you still have dope in the tire. wiping it off better and scrubbing it in better will make the car feel better in the early going. this is especially important with the purple/pink family, not so much with the black/white family (which is what we run in 1/12). in other words we dont do this because it make us look cool, you should do it too.

if your car goes to hell when the dope wears from the tire, it means your car needs more natural bite (setup), and applied bite (traction compund). but there is a natural "fade" from beginning to end. look at the qualifying sheets and mains listings. look at the fast guys first five laps and last five laps. average them and subtract. this will give you an idea of what should be "natural". in i start on 9.4's and finish on 9.9's then my car faded .5 from begining to end. your car should fade the same amount. if you start on 10.2's you should finish on 10.7's. in other words, you may be chasing a problem that is not a problem. i have to drive my stuff really easy the first few laps or it will lift too.

hope this helps.