PG or Quick slicks on a local commercial track

[Modlerbob]

I've been racing at a local slot car commercial track for the last two months. It is an 8 lane mdf large track approx. 165' long. 100' is the Daytona speedway tri-oval and the remainder is a 65' infield road course. The track is also used for 1/24th scale flexi cars with sponge tires and for that purpose the track is periodically spray glued for traction. I've been using Paul Gage urethanes up to now and they seem to hook up fine. Most all of the other racers had never heard of Paul Gage tires and have been using either slot.it silicones or the stock Scaley tires (Stock Trans Am class). I've had a few podium finishes but mostly middle of the pack. So last weekend I ordered two sets of Quick Slick silicones for my Camaros and tonight I will be testing which tire type on virtually identical cars delivers the the best lap times and the fewest deslots. I'll report back later the results of my experiment.

[RichD]

Silicone tires pick up dust from the track and once they do they will loose grip and will have to be cleaned. On a clean track Quick Slicks should have more grip than urethane tires or Slot.it S1s. If the track is dusty run a car around that has sponge tires with a little traction compound on them. Urethane tires do not get coated with dust and are more tolerant of a dusty track. In the end the best tire to use may depend on the track conditions.

[mattb]

We run Protrack silicones or our own coated tires on a glue track and dust is no problem. I think they continue to grip the glue and even if they get some dust, they still get the glue, too. We actually don't ever clean tires that run on this track.

Our local track does not like us running silicone and we only get to run on Monday nite. They clean and spray the track when we are done. They think our silicone ruins the track for the sponge tires. This has been a common thought for years and may be true or may not. Obviously the silicone today is not the same as that from 1965.

We didn't run on orange one week and they still got complaints. The next week they watched practice closer and found a guy practicing on and sneaking some kind of crap on his tires which left a film that hurt traction for the other guys. Turned out our silicone was not the problem, it was one of their regular guys! Of course they still don't want silicone on the track.

I hear guys say that you can't mix silicone and urethane. Whichever tire you use, it hurts the traction for the other type. I do know I run silicone exclusively on Carrera and urethane tires don't grip more than 60% as good.

[Modlerbob]

Well my Camaro with the PG urethanes was turning slightly better laps than the one with silicones but, in the end, I decided to run my Javelin with PG urethanes, came in 4th out of 7. In the second race, scaley GT3 cars I finished 3rd driving a Porsche 911 GT3 with PG tires.

[chappy]

Well done Bob, that was a good test to conduct and reconfirmed my thoughts on tires.
I wonder if the PGs were standard or the PGX extremes you used.
Well driven too. I drove that track back in 2009, a great track and a lot of fun with the road course for the 24hr event too.
Is Holly Hills far from you ?
Bob

[Modlerbob]

Bob, I live about 35 miles from the track in Holly Hill. Most of the drive is on I-4 so it takes about 40 minutes door to door. I use the xpg compound and I still get good life out of my tires. I still have trouble with the urethane decomposing from time to time and there doesn't seem to be a pattern to it. Sometimes one tire will fall apart and the other side is OK. They always turn an orangy color first.

[chappy]

Hmmmm that is curious Bob. I know the xpg has a reddish tinge to it when held up to the light .
It makes me wonder if something on the track is compromising the tire , but it only happens to one tire. Does it happen on your home track too. ?

I will have to check mine out and see if it is a degradation or something else.
I havent checked the exact shore between the PGs and the XPGs, but recallmhearing about the XPGs being good on wood but breaking down faster.
When i make my Urethane tires i use black tint and get about a 50 shore but when i add a drop of red tint to the black i get a 40 shore with the same mixture.
Bob

[Modlerbob]

The problem ocurs mostly at home and usually when a car sits on the shelf for a while. It is similar to but not the same as the problem with front tires on some other brands like R/M and Carrera where the tire melts to a black puddle under the wheel.