Worksop RCC
 

Sooooo

I visited Worksop yesterday to spectate at my first race for 30years and I was absolutely blown away, the speed, the jumps, the amazing driving and the number of drivers and I have to say the organisation was exceptionally good. I thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot wait to get in your way when my K2 roller is up and running at Christmas :thumbsup:

One thing that I cannot get my head around is Control Tyres.

My understand at yesterday's event is that the tyres had to be brand new and only be used for the day? Considering that they are now glued and their not cheap for anyone especially the children and teens racing is this really the way forward? As I said I am new to modern racing so and thoughts and advise regarding tyres is much appreciated.
I live in Mansfield and planning to run at Mansfield, Shirebrook, Worksop and Robin Hood Raceway, so would be interested to know the tyres used at these venues and any other venues you recommend, especially for newbies which considering what I saw yesterday I certainly am happy to carry that label.
Lee

That's one thing I don't like at all - control tyres, especially the "must be new" nonsense. We're not all sponsored, we're not all made of money and some of us have our kids racing with us.

My local club doesn't have any tyre rules at all, apart from when it's running a Regional round when it's simply dart rears, which is what most run at our track anyway when conditions suit.

I can understand it for certain venues like carpet and dirt where they need to protect the surface, but cannot for the life of me see why they demand they must be as new unless someone has a vested interest in making confirmed purchases in a certain company's product.

Bit of a rant but it's something I feel quite strongly about. The hobby is expensive enough without enforcing more cost on it for no apparent reason. IMHO of course.

Yours faithfully,

A skint Dad and his kid trying to have some fun.

There's a reason you can only use one new set at the start of the Worksop meeting, it's pretty unique though, I don't think anywhere else has had to go to the level we've had to.

For the last 10 years we have used Schumacher mini-pins as a control tyre, to get the most out of them though you needed to chop the pins off with snips until you could barely feel them, almost slicks, this was a faff but if you wanted to be competitive at all you had to do it. The other problem that sits with this is tyre additive - be this WD40 or other tyre additive, these soften the tyre and make it stickier, it is of course banned, we don't want any chemicals on the hall floor or for people to come into contact with.

As you will have seen, the level of competition at Worksop is intense and goes from literally the best in the world to club racers, it has to be fair for all though whether you're flying in to race, driving from Scotland or coming from down the road. You can use the tyres from Worksop anywhere else you please, so you will probably get 3-4 meetings out of the tyres.

The tyre we are using has been specifically designed for that venue at great expense. Hopefully it will transfer to other similar surfaces but these are few and far between.

If you're racing outdoors at RHR then buy some blue darts, they'll last ages (for the dry) for the wet buy some silver darts.

I sell a lot of my part used wheels and tyres very cheap at RHR, so you can race on a budget easily.

To add to the worksop tyres,
You only need a pair of new rears each meeting, use fronts as much as you want.
Under 10 year olds can use old tyres.
We have far more grip now for no prep.
Finally cut off the old tyres leaving the glued parts on the rims, remove the insert, but in acetone or a food steamer, peel off the now unglued rubber, 're use wheel and insert

James has put it very sensibly
The worksop series is a well respected series and as James says we had the current top 3 drivers in Europe in attendance plus enough top drivers to fill a UK national A final
Please don't be intimidated by the apparent cost
The latest control tyre scenario is in operation to create a level playing field for all drivers
It's not a common situation ,club level do not usually stipulate these type of rules we want to encourage new drivers not scare them off
We will be back there for round 2 in about 3 weeks please come and introduce yourself to any of the organising team and ask any questions you need we all want to help newcomers
I usually spend most of the day on the end of the rostrum " refereeing " trying to ensure drivers get a fair race it's not easy at times either
Regards Dave

James again thank you for the insight , this explains a lot about the uniqueness of the Worksop track and why the rule is in place which I very much appreciate and understand. I was blown away with the meeting , I really was and look forward to meeting you at some point next year.

Lee

Thank you Mark, how long do they need to be steamed or acetone used for?

Thank you Dave, really interested to understand the roles of a referee so will come and say hi when I next visit. Can you tell me if Worksop is just a Winter series or is their regular racing that takes place?

New tyres every meeting would stop me going with my 2 boys as it would be far too expensive. They are 11 and complete novices so tyres last many meetings but they would fall outside under 10.

Hi,



not sure on steaming, but acetone i put mine for roughly 24 hours. whether this needs to be quite as long im not sure, they go in when ive put the kids to bed at night, and then i take them out the following night when they are in bed again :)

it works a treat and saves a lot of £££


Jonny

its just a winter series. i think there are 7 meetings from Oct - March. It is a great series run by a a good set of guys.


Jonny

Thanks Jonny, where can you buy acetone from and what type of container do you put them in, sealed lid etc, visions of waking up next morning to a mush of dissolved plastic :)

EBay. I used a large food container marked with not for food :thumbsup:

It’s pretty easy to find acetone on EBay, it’s about £12 or so for 5liters.

For a container, I got a big lidded tub from either Wilco’s or Roy’s, that’s for beer/wine making. You only need to get an old mug, fill that with the acetone, place it at the bottom of the tub & the fumes do the rest.

The tub is pretty big, so I can do lots of sets at once.

Hi,


Here's a video on using acetone to remove glued on rubber:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZldarEvBKRI


MiCk B. :-)

Hi daz
As mentioned before this is a pretty unique situation at Worksop and not common many other series will specify a control tyre but not specify replacement times some series may include a set of tyres in the entry fee
At Worksop last year you could get 4 or 5 meetings with one set of tyres but this brought other problems
Consulting with drivers the organisers along with our main sponsor Schumacher have developed this new tyre mainly for this season
At the time of launch we were not sure of wear rates and longevity so with drivers approval it was decided rear tyres would be replaced each meeting to level playing field for everyone. This rule may change in future of course but talking to the drivers on Sunday the majority thought it was a improvement over previous years situation
Regards Dave

And for this I can't thank you enough, James. On my 5th meeting with the last pair of darts I had off you, and they're still good enough to use! #notgoingfastenough :lol:

Hi John, Thanks for the info, so you don't need to actually submerge the whole the as per the below youtube video ?

Lee

I prefer to use a steamer - it's much cleaner and no nasty chemicals hanging around.

Half hour or so and job done. :)

Not at all, the fumes are enough, submerging the tyres in acetone, might be a faster way to do it, but this way, you don’t use too much of it at a time, or have to clean the wheels afterwards.

When you submerge tyres in acetone, after a while the acetone gets dirty & can stain the wheels.