This was sent out by ProDrive recapping our first regional of the year in Portland. Gary Manchester was in P1 for the race and elected to go out on soft rains (I think, for during the race he was always searching for wet spots on track before it started raining). Also, about half the field of 9 went out on drys (me included) and it was close racing until the rain started. After seeing what played out with the new compound, I am wishing that we could have two options on the rains. Gary did a good job of staying in front of the dry drivers with his soft compounds. Of course when the air temp is in the mid to high 30's that might make the soft compound last a little bit longer than say, someplace in Texas. I was easily out driven by the other dry drivers when the rain started. Ispun twice, but kept it on the pavement. Congrats to everyone for a clean and exciting race!

"After enjoying three sunny weekends in California to start the 2012 race season, the Pro Drive Racing Team returned home for the first Oregon Region SCCA race of the year. Throughout the weekend the weather would play a deciding factor in the outcome as rain, wind and even snow fell at Portland International Raceway.

Dan Halloran and Paul Goudy would be the only two veteran drivers for Pro Drive to brave the conditions. Joining them was Chuck McConica, a 2006 Pro Drive graduate and former DSR Radical driver. Chuck was returning to the track after a four year hiatus from racing.


Qualifying was held on a very wet track that required the drivers to use the soft compound rain tire. Even with the grippy rain tire, times were nearly 15 seconds slower than typical lap times turned on a dry track. Goudy slipped and slid to an impressive 2nd on the grid, putting to good use the car control skills he worked on in the Pro Drive SkidCar only a couple weeks earlier. 2011 Oregon Region Champion Halloran was 5th with McConica gridded 8th.


As the weather changed throughout the day it brought an uncertainty to what the track conditions would be like come race time. Only minutes before the race the track was drying, but ominous clouds were on the horizon. Team Pro Drive opted to go with the hard rain tire as other competitors chose the dry slicks and the soft rain tire.

By the time the green flag flew at the start of the race, the track was nearly dry, but very cold. Goudy and Halloran spent most of the race in a four car group that ebbed and flowed as the conditions changed. Some sprinkles fell about 10 minutes into the race but didn't create a problem for the drivers on slicks. Over the next few laps the sprinkles stopped and the track remained dry, as Pro Drive's Todd Harris wondered if the team had made the right tire choice . Then, with only a couple laps remaining, a light rain began to fall as Goudy and Halloran chased down their competitors. On the final lap the skies opened up and doused the track as Halloran crossed the finish line in 2nd with Goudy right behind in 4th. McConica made his way through the rain to place 8th on his return to racing.

Shortly after the race, as the drivers changed out of their wet race suits to dry clothes, snowflakes began to fall over the racetrack. Maybe the drivers should bring a snowsuit and skies to the next race..."

Jim:

Here is a link to my video of the race.

http://vimeo.com/39995802

I think tire selections were:

Gary M (7 - yellow) old wets
Draneas(9 - purple) slicks
Jackson (8 - blue) slicks
Gaudy (27 - orange) new wets
Me (58 - green/yellow) new wets

You can see that Gary does well in the early running but is looking for wets spots to cool off his tires and eventually gets passed by Jackson and Draneas who pull away. I am catching Gary.

It seemed to me that the new wets were just a bit twitchy in the dry. They didn't destroy themselves, which was very nice, but they seemed a little slower than slicks and only a bit better than the old wets after several laps.

Then it started to rain and Gary's old wet tires were the obvious choice. Gary catches everyone and drives away.

I was catching Jackson and Draneas and it appeared they were much more of a handful in the wet than my tires. Having said that the new wets are still very slippery and nothing like the old tires.

Their real saving grace is that in dry or mixed conditions you don't ruin an $800 set of tires which some of us have been know to do!

I haven't watched the video yet, but your description of the tires relative to one another sounds about right. As I said, I think Enterprises nailed it with our new rain tire. While they may not be extremely fast in the rain they are all of the below:
1) safe in the rain, VASTLY safer than dries
2) durable, they will survive on a drying track
3) slower than slicks on a dry track.

Denny

Dan, great video. You did have some Action on the last lap!. I am guessing that you did not have a rain setup seeing how twitchy it was in the turns? I don't feel so bad now, knowing that Paul had the new wets. Action and John did well in the wet!