The annual Olga’s California Dream 100 at Madera Speedway introduced a new rule for its 2025 race on August 15-16: an open tire rule. Promoters will allow any brand of tire as long it is no wider than 8 inches and has tread or grooves. That’s it.
(For more on the race, read “Olga’s California Dream: Big Four-Cylinder Race.”)
Event promoter Bob Coply feels it create unique strategies for teams, especially when it comes to stagger.
“We run with the open tire rule for just this reason — it makes racing interesting when drivers use different paths to create the stagger they feel their cars need to win,” said Coply. “A couple of racers entered in this year’s race called and asked if they can run Cobra tires.”
Coply contacted Chester Hester, of Cobra Racing Tires. Hester attended last year’s Olga’s California Dream 100.
(For more on Cobra Racing Tires, read “Cobra Racing Tires: A Third Tire Manufacturer?.”)
“Chester made an appearance at the WARPA convention this year, and he and I talked about sponsorship for the Dream,” Coply said. “He offered $2,000 to a car winning on Cobras, and $1,000 for the highest finisher on Cobras if a car not using Cobras won the race. These are numbers not usually seen in four-cylinder racers. The racers have been going crazy with this news.”
Cobra Racing Tires offers mini stocks size 23×5-13. It durometers 62 when new, then dropping to 52 when heated. It has 84 inches of rollout.
“Cobra has a medium hard compound that could be raced on for about 400 laps,” Coply said. “It has a larger sidewall, which is appealing to some racers. The tire can be grown — over inflate and put in the sun — and the larger sidewall helps in that process.”
The open nature of the race also extends to drivetrain format for the cars. Both front- and rear-wheel-drive cars are welcome. While more than 6 months away, the race already has 50 entries registered.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
