The astute among you may have noticed the Tire Rack ad that has popped up at the right side of The Garage. Tire Rack is an interesting company that has revolutionized the tire industry by taking tire sales online, eliminating the need to wade through the confusing mess that is tire pricing.

The really cool thing about the Tire Rack is that you, the reader can click on the ad and buy new boots for your pride and joy, while helping to support The Garage. That helps us continue to provide the cool content that we love producing here!

So, what are you waiting for? Snow is just around the corner and Tire Rack has some great deals on winter tires!

Regular readers know that I believe kids can and should be involved in motorsports as early as they show interest. Here in Ontario, kids can start racing karts the year they turn 8 and for those who are into two wheeled action they start riding motocross at 5. Not everyone can be a driver though. As every driver will agree, without enthusiastic crew behind them, there would be no racing. There are so many jobs in the paddock, that even the little ones can have a go, even if they are handing out sandwiches.

The young lad you see above was roughly 12 years old. He was hard at work in the Goodyear compound cleaning and marking slicks for the NASCAR Canada teams. You can pretty much guarantee that this guy will one day be earning his keep working in the big leagues.

If memory serves, the leader of Team California’s Best began his long racing career slinging tires for a funny guy’s racing team.

With one of the wildest winters in years in much of North America, many roads are in pretty rough shape. They say that in Toronto there have been 165,000 pot holes recorded so far this year and it will take until July before they can all be repaired. Those potholes are literally everywhere and are wreaking havoc with your tires, wheels and suspension components. The scary thing is that your alignment can be out of whack without you even noticing a difference behind the wheel.

So why should you have an alignment? Here are ten reasons:

1. You have just installed or are about to install new tires
2. You notice uneven tire wear
3. Your steering wheel is off center
4. Your vehicle pulls to the left or right
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Vintage race meets have a habit of bringing out the legends and the 2007 VARAC Festival did not disappoint. Canadian racing legend and the last Can Am series Champion Horst Kroll was in attendance with an old friend in tow.
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When you are a pro in any industry, you have certain views that can be hard to sway. One of those for me is off brand tires. The P5’s summer boots were pretty much finished, so I started making some calls. The first (and only really) was to Gord Cullen at Tire Depot.
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Thanks to The Sociable Critic we have this wonderful Oregonian Bibendum.

It’s amazing that this oddball assembly of spare tires is instantly recognizable as the Michelin mascot. Such is the power of a strong brand.
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Having missed a whole season of kart racing last year, The Garage racing team was looking forward to an action packed weekend with the Mosport Kart Club. That said, the goal was education, fun and break in a new engine, so our expectations of success were low.

Saturday morning began with an unexplained lack of power, that we suspect was dirt in the carb. After much mucking about, we were able to get the engine to rev over 3500 rpm and Shelby was on her way. Rather than the usual pre-final, final format the club had decided to run a 15 lap final. Shelby loves long sessions, and I figured that it would be a good break in session, so this was welcome news. An untested gear change should bring more revs & get her closer to the pace. A few laps in, the change had made an improvement, but still not enough. About halfway through the race, the old tires started to get slippery the girl was at full opposite lock more often than not. On the 2nd last lap, the leaders caught her quickly at the entrance to the infield hairpin, just as Shelby spun. The leader hadn’t left enough room and hit her hard in the right front. A display of poor sportsmanship by the other driver and his parents taught Shelby a thing or two about fair play.

Sunday dawned sunny and humid, with promise of wicked sunburn. Now running on the south track at the Mosport Driver Development Track, the engine had come alive and so did the driver. This is Shelby’s fave track and it shows. New tires, another gear change and a more comfortable driver made a huge difference. On the 11th lap of the 12 lap final, we were running 6th and Shelby had just set up a pass for 5th when she suddenly slowed. A thrown chain. Not quite enough tension and a bump in the track had been Shelby’s demise.

Overall, the driver and the wrench learned a lot this weekend and that was the goal. Saturday was a big disappointment, but that was mainly due to the behaviour of another team. I’ll deal with more of that issue in another post.

Related Racing season is here