it is amazing how the same issue crops up over and over again....Nothing ever changes in the DSC, bless it!
The tyre letter from Pirelli exists or certainly did exist (I have recently thrown out an enormous pile of DSC paperwork away in which I think there was a copy). - As Chairman at the time of the start of DD we were very concerned about liability, both financial and moral, - racing is dangerous and we wanted to reduce risk to both the Club and certainly the riders. At the time there were "issues" around road tyre suitability on track, - I can recall the conversation regarding a dreadful accident at Brands Hatch, that if I recall correctly unsuitability of tyres in a sudden downpour were in part to blame.
Right from the start the series was setup to be step up from track days so riders would not have race experience and very purposefully did not want decisions over wets and slicks, and the resulting wrong decisions ending up with accidents.
I did a search in my inbox for Pirelli and founds loads of e-mails, - this one dated 15th March 2005 between the then RC is quite interesting:
Quote:
5) A lot of you will be aware of the ongoing police investigation into the death of a superstock rider last year, this caused us a problem over the tyre issue for the series. It should be noted that Pirelli came forward and provided us with the necessary written confirmation of the suitability of their Diablo tyre for the series. This has in all probability saved us from having to cancel the series or introduce an expensive tyre option including 2 sets of wheels, warmers, wets, etc. which the majority did not want. Do not underestimate the potential liability issues that we were having to deal with here and what this commitment from Pirelli means. Obviously this took us a lot longer to sort out that we had hoped for, however we have managed to do it and the series goes ahead. Some rather snide remarks have been made in Pirelli's direction on the message board. I think that I should set the record straight in this area. Firstly no where does it say that you have to buy your tyres from A & R racing, market forces will always apply, but they will have stocks of tyres at each of the rounds for those that might need them. Secondly as we asked Pirelli so late in the day, they were not able to put loads of money (free tyres!) into the series because of their other commitments |