THOMPSON, CT (March 31, 2005) -- An open practice and testing session was
conducted Thursday at Thompson Speedway for all divisions in preparation of the
1st event of the season--the Icebreaker 2005 on April 10th. Fifteen
Modified Tour cars were on hand. This was the first time competitors have run
the newly designed Hoosier tires at Thompson. The new tires are 27.0x13.0-15
640 D2720 (RR), 27.0x13.0-15 500 D2620 (RF) and 26.0x13.0-15 500 D2420 (left
side). Some competitors elected to sort out their cars using last year's tires,
while others opted for the new design with some drivers picking up as much as
4/10ths of a second and running below last year's Icebreaker pole time. A few
of the drivers in attendance were last year's Bud Pole Award winner Donny Lia
along with Chuck Hossfeld and Ted Christopher.
QUOTES:
Driver Teddy Christopher: "These tires are
awesome. We ran our fastest laps on 35-lap tires."
Barry Kuhnel, Crew Chief for Teddy Christopher: "All
I can say is Hoosier hit a homerun with these tires. They make a crew chief's
job a lot easier."
Hoosier Open Wheel Asphalt Product Manager Irish
Saunders: "We are very happy with what we have seen so far.
The engineers worked very hard over the winter on
these tires and it shows. With this new design, I feel it will make some of the
best racing we have ever seen."
Phil Moran, Crew Chief for Chuck Hossfeld #50:
"The
repeatability is back to where it was several years ago. The car turns
better and there is more bite. It is all there!"
Donny Lia, Driver of the
Huntington
Honda #18:"The
tires have more grip than they had last year. There is more side bite and
better forward bite. The tire is real good."
Rick Fuller, On the Hoosier Racing Tire test at Caraway
Speedway
on March 29th (2-Day
Test): "From
the first lap to the 25th lap, the tires were exactly the same each
and every lap. We ran the tires through numerous heat cycles and they
repeated every time. The most impressive thing to me was the consistency lap
after lap."
For more information about the Whelen Modified Tour,
visit www.nascar.com and
click on the Regional Racing link at the top right of the homepage.
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