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| Smoking is a expensive habit... |
So with Incarace's announcement that they wish to try an experiment with tyres at Northampton but primarily at Birmingham. The Second City Circuit has been notorious as a burner of rubber, with many drivers going through 4 tyres in a meeting. At a cost of £210 a meet, it isn't any wonder that this, coupled with crap formats, has led to a dwindling attendances at Birmingham.
Some say it is after the horse has bolted and that they are late to recognise what many have been saying for some time, the abrasive nature of the track kills tyres stone dead. Indeed, it is said, that after a Birmingham meeting there is more used rubbers than a Amsterdam brothel. So I am told.
As a wiseman once said, don't give me problems, give me solutions. So here in summary and picked apart what has been thrown around social media (you know the one, the one that Brisca likes you to be nice on, no abuse now) over the past couple of days.
1.....RESURFACE THE TRACK
Birmingham Wheels is owned by Birmingham City Council as part of the Wheels complex. As it is owned by the council, all improvements have to be signed off and the like. As a council owned brownfield site, it is seen as surplus to requirements and, in the past ten years, has been linked with the idea of a "super casino" and new "City of Birmingham Stadium" to replace the nearby St Andrews, the current home of Birmingham City. So to say its being delibrately run down would be unfair, but the council has little or no interest maintaining a site which will soon become surplus to requirements. Graham Brown, a man in the know at Spedeworth, recently quoted a figure of over £100k to retarmac the straight at Ipswich. This kind of financial outlay doesn't make fiscal sense when it isn't owned by the promoter, on a council owned brownfield site, so it's kind of a non goer...
2..... RESTRICT THE AMOUNT OF TYRES USED IN A MEETING
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| Should be enough for the parade lap, whaddya think! |
The idea Incarace svengali, Paul Gerrard has put out there for discussion, is the declaration of 5 tyres to last the whole meeting as an idea. With exceptions made to tyre damage and wet weather during racing, its seems a logical idea to bring the cost of racing at Birmingham and Northampton right down.
Within seconds of it being announced, both neigh and yay sayers were in force to praise or suggest how an idea would work. Firstly, there were some who said all that it would achieve is that everyone
would just present 5 brand new tyres and race them, thus not actually achieving anything. If a restriction of one new tyre per meeting was put in place, questions were asked about how it would be policed. Does a receipt from Dave Polley count as a new tyre, and if that tyre has been buffed, is it now no longer a "new" tyre. These are the questions that need to be addressed. I cannot see how buffing a brand new tyre is beneficial to its longevity. I know from the Avon days when I was more hands on, that a new tyre had to be scrubbed in, so in practice at one of the more gripper tracks to get a new tyre to race readiness.
My personal view is that if this experiment is successful, then it should be rolled out to all tracks. They have been neigh sayers that whats good for a 1 meeting a weekend traveling circus formula shouldn't necessarily transpose over to the nationwide multi meet weekends we all have with F2. It would mean a greater role for the scrutineers, who need tightening up for consistency, to mark the tyre with an can of spray or marker pen of sorts. You simply can't for the good of the sport have one rule for one track and one for the next.
3..... CHANGE THE TYRE
The tyre tests done last year proved one thing, the Yokohama is still the best all round option for F2. If the Yokohama isn't working for some tracks, then we have to look at a different set of tyres for a different track, unless the great and good want Birmingham and NIR to go to say, I don't know, Hoosiers perhaps, and change the name of the formula to something that rhymes with chicken pox. Yes, the Avon's were better, but they were dear, and susceptible to abuse from softener. You could run them down to canvas! There is no value for money alternative at the moment, and with a few tweaks to the rules, the Yoko could last for eternity!
....FINAL THOUGHT
The future of F2 rests on this and the engine decision. With a lack of agreement and petty squabbling at a higher level, there does seem to be some blue sky thinking going on, but the clouds above scream ulterior motives, and juxtapositioning of pawns in a bigger game. Once the rules of engagement have been drawn up, its interesting whether it will fly or not.
We have a real opportunity to drag us out of the perceived malaise we currently are currently experiencing, and come out the other side with a professional focused formula, with the numbers to justify its presence as Europe's premier formula, not the "and chips" option on the menu for most promoters. With a fanbase which spans the entire country, it should be promoted as such, and with the help of drivers and spectators, let's drive this formula on with common sense, practicable and economical solutions which keeps the racing good, the drivers keen and the fans satisfied.
