Today, most tracks and series prohibit the use of tire treatments. Buck Parker, of Daytona 1, argues that rule makers should reconsider those bans. Scott Junod, of American Racer, advocates maintaining those bans. Here are their points of view.
For Tire Treatments
Many criticize the use of tire treatments because it often involves harsh, toxic, and sometime carcinogenic chemicals. Parker understands that argument. His credentials include being inducted into the Space Foundation’s Space Technology Hall of Fame in 2000. What got him there was his contributions in developing a biodegradable lubricant for the Space Shuttle mobile launch transporter. Over the course of eight years, Parker parlayed that experience in developing a line of environmentally friendly and non-toxic tire treatments, Grip-Bite, sold by Daytona 1.
“Our product reconditions tires, adds life to them, and is pliable,” Parker said. “Tires were previously softened by products made by backyard chemists. Those products dropped the durometer 30 points and came apart on the racetrack. Our product drops the durometer maybe five points, and it won’t make a tire dangerous.”
In fact, Parker argues that using Grip-Bite is more environmentally friendly as it reduces tire waste.
“You’ve seen mounds of used tires at tracks and in the back of race shops — people throw them away when they glaze over,” said Parker. “I have a proven product that is effective and will not degrade tires. It will save racing, and that is why I developed it.”
To police against other, more toxic forms of treatments, he said that Grip-Bite has a distinct chemical signature that a lab should be able to readily detect.
Parker added that the Viesmann Trucking Gen X Late Models that race at I-94 Speedway in Minnesota successfully used Grip-Bite last season. The rules mandate the racers running used tires, and Grip-Bite helped them get more life out of those tires, according to Parker.
Against Tire Treatments
American Racer’s Scott Junod strongly discourages the use of tire treatments.
“Anything that breaks rubber down is considered a solvent,” Junod said. “It softens rubber to increase tackiness and increase grip.”
Racing tires consist of much of than simple natural rubber.
“There are more than 80 different chemicals that go into building a tire — and all of them have an important role,” said Junod. “They work in concert to create grip. A tire fires off when it reaches a certain temperature to create grip. There are two types of grip — physical and chemical. Physical grip is when rubber conforms to the surface of a racetrack. Add chemicals into the mix and when that tire heats up due to friction and flexing, chemical grip increases.”
Different compounds use different formulations.
“The chemist creates different grip at different temperatures,” Junod said. “You would want the grip to spread out at different temperatures, and the chemicals in the tire contribute to the grip. When softeners are added to a tire, they are guaranteed to interact with the chemicals in the tire. The matrix of the tire will break down. There is no safe way to add chemicals to a tire. [Parker] doesn’t know what chemicals are in the tire, so how does he formulate anything to enhance the tire’s formula?”
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.
