Thunder Road famed Tiger Division Receives New Goodyear Tire for 2010
Waterbury, VT – The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and the American Canadian Tour (ACT) have recently announced a new tire design for the very popular Tiger Sportsman division at Thunder Road in Barre, VT.
During the original test session when ACT made the decision to switch over to the Goodyear brand for a seven-inch tire for the Ltd. Late Model-style car, several of the teams thought the Goodyear seven-inch treaded tire would better serve their needs if the engineers could add another half inch to the center of the tire. After a full year of racing on the seven-inch units, Goodyear has agreed to develop the seven and one-half inch version of the popular tire.
Scott Junod, Goodyear Sales Manager, Short Track Racing, said “ACT has been good for our presence in the Northeast and eastern Canada over the past five years with the growth of their Late Model racing, and we feel we can help them out with the development of a treaded Limited Late Model tire in order to meet their needs. I have seen ‘Tiger/Sportsman’ (Limited Late Model division at Thunder Road) races a number of times, and it really is an incredibly successful division. The Airborne Park Speedway also uses Goodyear’s seven-inch tire in two of their divisions with great success.”
“We feel there is a high demand in the market for this kind of Limited Late Model type of car. We are aware that there is a need for performance, longevity, and repeatability in the support divisions around the short tracks, and that is exactly what our race engineering department is working on. I think competitors across the country will be pleased with the new development product,” concluded Junod.
The Tiger Sportsman Limited Late Model type car has been the primary car at Thunder Road since 1966. After a ten-year upgrade to a Late Model in the early seventies, the division was re-established and was totally responsible for the renaissance of Thunder Road as a viable weekly short track division following its brief closure in 1981. Most of the current ACT Late Model teams from the Thunder Road region were successful graduates of the Tiger Sportsman division.
Long time veteran racer Joey Laquerre from Barre, VT was the original person selected to test the seven-inch tire for Thunder Road use. “This tire change is just what the Tiger division needs,” said the veteran. “I asked Graham Carney and Joel Reichert (Goodyear Engineers) if it would be possible to add another half an inch to the center of what is already a terrific seven-inch treaded tire. As a racer it is great that a company like Goodyear will work with us on these kinds of projects. This should be a state of the art tire for the Limited Late Model kinds of cars around the country,” concluded Laquerre.
The new tire, the D2637, measures 27 inches tall, seven and one half inches across the tread and mounts on a 15-inch rim. Goodyear plans to test the tire this off-season, and then go into production to be available for the beginning of the 2010 season.
Thunder Road opens on May 2, 2010 with the Merchants Bank 150 for the American Canadian Tour and the Limited Late Model Goodyear tire will see its first official race on that weekend.