Firestone, Firestone Tires, Firestone Racing, Firestone Firehawk, Al Speyer
THE GRIP OF WINTER
Words by Jeff Olson Photo by Paul Webb
S
cott Dixon barely had time to get home
to New Zealand before he had to get
back stateside for a tire test. Likewise,
Tony Kanaan held new son Leonardo for not
quite as long as he would have liked before
jetting off to another test session. Helio
Castroneves was barely done dancing before
he was back in the car.
Uh-huh, you guessed it. He was testing tires.
But all those off-season tire tests actually
lead to something beyond racing. While teams
and drivers are turning laps to help Firestone
VIDEO EXTRA
FIRESTONE’S
ODE TO RACING
engineers come up with suitable tires, the
technology developed by IndyCar Series
testing is reaching the marketplace.
Firestone tires featuring long-link carbon are
beginning to show up on passenger cars,
justifying one of the primary reasons Firestone is
involved in the IndyCar Series – to apply
technology gleaned from racing to street tires.
“There are technologies that transfer from
the world of racing tires to the world of
passenger tires,” says Al Speyer, executive
director of Firestone Racing. “For example,
VIDEO EXTRA
See the long
version of
Firestone’s Ode
to Racing
commercial below
long-link carbon is used in racing tires to resist
heat buildup. That same long-link carbon is
used in passenger tires to provide longer wear
and enhanced wet traction.”
Long-link carbon has been part of Firestone
Firehawk racing technology for some time. It
reduces the trade-off between wet traction
and wear, giving consumers a tire that’s soft
enough to provide excellent traction in wet
conditions while not wearing out too quickly.
Firestone’s off-season tests are used
primarily to help the company develop racing
tires that fit the racetrack. Firestone builds tires
specifically for each track, and even the
slightest variable – temperature, downforce,
track surface – can cause a major change in the
tire Firestone provides.
“There are always small changes that are
made to the race car’s aerodynamics, the
engines, and even the track surface itself,”
Speyer explains. “All of these factors affect the
tires’ performance, so ongoing testing is a key
activity in our minds.”
The ultimate goal, of course, is to sell tires to
the public. That goal easily could be
accomplished simply based on Firestone’s track
record; but the Nashville-based company wants
instead to improve its consumer product by
applying the advancements learned from racing.
“Some of the oval tracks on the IndyCar
Series schedule produce the most stress on
racing tires in any type of motorsport
competition anywhere in the world,” Speyer
says. “So while we enjoy a great reputation, a
lot of continuous hard work goes on behind the
scenes to make it work properly.”
Race to road
IndyCarSeries 2007 winterspecial 33
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