Statement from Terry Carroll Motorsports regarding American Racer Tires investigation report.
In response to the statements made by American Racer Tires yesterday, Terry Carroll Motorsports decided to release a statement. We at Terry Carroll Motorsports have completed our investigation of the American Racer Tire incident at Dominion Raceway on September 3rd, 2016.
During the second 50 lap feature race on lap 41, we believe the right front tire unexpectedly blew at the exit of turn 2 and shot the 91 car into the wall at the beginning of the back straightaway. We maintained consistent lap times throughout the second race up until the tire blew. We had 3 sets of eyes on this car at all times, and we did not have any sparks from under the car until the tire blew.
We did not have the opportunity to inspect the track or obtain any photos we could mark up to work to our advantage, but we did have the opportunity to inspect the tire and the race car. We have come to the conclusion that the right front tire failed and blew as shown by the internal pictures of the tire and due to the consistent tread depth of 5/32’s across the surface of the tire. Not surprisingly, we do not agree with American Racer Tires speculations as we are certain they do not agree with ours.
We also believe our investigation is as legitimate as the investigation done by American Racer Tires. When anyone investigates their own situation, there is a motive or desired outcome. American Racer Tires has a business to protect and Terry Carroll Motorsports doesn’t want to see other racers get hurt unnecessarily due to preventable tire failures. As we have all seen, many racers have posted pictures of blistered tires and blown tires from Dominion Raceway. We believe American Racer Tires has had ample time to develop a tire that does not require scuffing or special requirements.
What we want is safety to be the priority. We at Terry Carroll Motorsports have been racing for over 40 years and we are well aware of the risks with racing. We have had many damaged race cars from on track incidents and we have to let those go after we leave the track and move on to the next race. We believe this is different since others could be at risk and American Racer Tires is not willing to acknowledge their tires might need improvement at Dominion. Dominion Raceway has built a a very nice facility and track with unlimited possibilities, but we believe the tires need to be addressed to make it the best it can be. We want to wish all the race car drivers and teams at Dominion Raceway a safe race free of tire failure.
We do not want any other team to experience what we did. With this being said, we realize many will not agree with our thoughts and that is expected. We want to put an end to “Tiregate” so after extensive research, we have sent the tire to an independent company that analyzes tires and incidents. We did not select the company mentioned in the statement by American Racer Tires and elected to pay for this ourselves. This company is in possession of the tire at this time and we hope to have a final report in the near future.
RACE22.com will follow up with details of the investigation report from the independent third party when results are given to Terry Carroll Motorsports.
