A New Approach To Tire Treatment

Jerry Bailey, the inventor of Track Claw® tire strengthener knew that there had to be a better way. For some time, racers had been approaching Jerry with samples of tire softeners for him to analyze. The racers wanted Jerry to find out why their treated tires were "going away" during the course of a race. They asked Jerry if he could develop a treatment that wouldn't lose its effectiveness during a race. Whether they're called traction compounds or tire softeners, short track racers are all familiar with the effects these chemicals can have on a tire. They'll soften a tire up all right, but after a handful of quick laps treated tires often "go away", leaving nothing more than slippery rim Protectors in just a few laps.

After carefully analyzing a wide variety of available tire treatments, Jerry decided that the fundamental principle behind tire softeners and traction compounds was flawed. "The guys were bringing me this stuff and it was made up mostly of aromatic solvents," says Jerry. "It was just evaporating off the tires. And really, all it does is dissolve the rubber anyway. The tires start off as a sticky mess, and then they just leave all that rubber on the track." Jerry took a fundamentally different approach to tire treatment in the course of developing Track Claw. Rather than breaking down the rubber with a powerful solvent, Jerry describes Track Claw as a chemical system that actually reconstructs the rubber compound of the tire what Jerry calls a reactive vulcanizing proccess." The solvent in Track Claw functions solely as a vehicle for the active ingredients; it evaporates completely during the curing process and doesn't change the durometer reading of the treated tires.The active ingredients in Track Claw react with the molecules in the rubber, simultaneously enchancing both traction and durability characteristics. Moreover this chemical process is heat reactive, meaning that heat actually promotes the polymerizing process.

Does all this sound too good to be true? We wanted to see what kind of effect Track Claw had in real-world conditions, so we tried Track Claw on the ST Late Model. On the night of our test, a persistent misfire was limiting the performance of the ST Late Model. Mark's fastest lap during practice and qualify was an 18.87. We bolted on the treated tires for the race, and, despite an engine that was down on power, Mark rattled off a string of 18.40's (equaling his previous fastest lap). The tires stayed consistent throughout the run and didn't suffer any drop-off in performance.

Achieving consistent performance was an important goal during the development of Track Claw, and Jerry sees it as a real safety advantage. "We were going to this local short track, and one of the Late Model drivers cars was just horrible loose," relates Jerry. "He was doing his best to stay out of trouble, but sooner or later he would spin out every week. Almost everyone I've talked to has told me that Track Claw really helps to tighten a car up, so I called him up and asked him if he wanted try it, and I gave him a quart. He went the rest of the year without a spin."

-Short Track Illustrated

SHORTTRACK-JUN 1996 55

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