As you know, I've been serving as your Canadian representative on the BMW CCA Club Racing Advisory Committee (CRAC). Club Racing is a very high profile activity even for a 50,000+ member organization like the American club. Over time concerns were expressed over the organization and administration of Club Racing and a meeting was called to air out some of these issues.

One of the issues was the appointment of a Canadian to a committee in an American club. Another issue concerned sanctioning a Canadian race hosted solely by the BMW CC. These were two of a score of issues but they were the ones which were of special concern to me and our club.

There was a lot of support for finding a way to continue to have a Canadian representative on the CRAC. In fact, all the CRAC representatives voiced their approval. And there was very strong support for our efforts in co-hosting the Tremblant races and continuing our solo efforts at Mosport. In fact, not only was I invited to the special Club Race meeting in Cleveland but the American club paid all my expenses to participate.

The textbox contains the minutes from the meeting. I'm happy to say the meeting went extraordinarily well and that we continue to enjoy a spot on CRAC and will continue to be permitted to apply to host club race events here giving us access to event stewards, title sponsors, and so on. This is a wonderful example of international cooperation. We win and they win.

BMW CCA Special Meeting to Discuss Club Racing (CR)
Cleveland, Ohio
February 11, 2000 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Attendees:

CCA National Board Members: Phil Marx, President; Kathy Lyle, Treasurer & Board Representative to CR; Carlos Diaz-Estrada, Vice President South Atlantic Region.

CR Staff: Scott Hughes, Chair; Ron Sullivan, National Competition Steward; Fran Hughes, Registrar

Club Racing Advisory (CRAC): Bob Van Epps, South Atlantic Region; Ken Partymiller, North Central Region; Robert T. Buttweiler, South Central Region; Chuck Quarton, Pacific Region; Phil Abrami; Canadian Affiliate.

Purpose:

The purpose of the meeting was to explore the structure and leadership of CR to maintain its growth and to improve the program while allowing the Board to be less involved in its operation. Attendees reached consensus on the following:

Arbitration Board

The Arbitration Board will hear individual or chapter disputes which cannot otherwise be satisfactorily resolved by CR or its committees (e.g., Protest & Appeals). The Board will be composed of the Chair of CR, a CRAC member elected by CRAC, and the Board representative to CR. The creation of this Board will require a change to the proposed Club Racing section of the National Operations Manual and a midyear change to CR 2000 rules. This change will be submitted to the National Board for approval at their March meeting.

Comment: The reason for creating the Arbitration Board is to provide another means whereby disputes and disagreements may be formally and fairly resolved. So long as due process is adhered to, the Arbitration Board will provide a definitive process for problem resolution without the need for the National Board's intervention. For example, license or event entry denials may be appealed to the Arbitration Committee.

Planning and Policy

The CR Executive Staff, CRAC members, and the CR Board Representative will meet twice this year to discuss major planning and policy concerns and to address long term goals and initiatives. Spring and fall meetings were proposed with the latter at Oktoberfest, possibly including larger CR staff representation.

Comment: Tentative long term goals include increasing CR membership, controlling participation costs, increasing national sponsorship revenues, holding regional racing schools, and dramatically reducing incident rates. The Board members present agreed to approach the Driving Event Committee (DEC) to explore the possibility of revising the curriculum at driving schools for advanced students [e.g., teaching multiple lines in corners] and to encourage cooperation between DEC and CRAC. CRAC will take a more active role in the mentor program for rookies.

Protests and Appeals

The composition of each event Protest Committee must be announced by the Competition Steward at the beginning of each event.

Comment: It is important that the event stewards have the full authority to conduct race events according to CR regulations. Naming the Protest Committee in advance helps to encourage this and to allow racers a mechanism by which disputes are quickly resolved. Administrative issues involving a race may be appealed to the Appeals Committee.

Canadian Affiliation

Canada will have a nonvoting affiliate on CRAC nominated by the BMW Club of Canada and voted on by Canadian Club Racers. CRAC may appoint the Canadian affiliate to serve as a voting member on any CR subcommittee as their representative.

The Board will continue to consider applications for CR race events held in Canada and hosted by the BMW CC when they are brought forward by the Canadian affiliate and approved by the CR Chair.

Comment: The members in attendance recognize and appreciate the long standing partnership which has existed between BMW CC and BMW CCA and the recent contributions of Canada to CR. At the same time, the members recognize the need for both clubs to exercise a degree of autonomy in their operations.

CRAC Vacancy

The NA CRAC representative spot is vacant. A letter will be sent to all NA racers in the next week asking for nominations. An election will be held within the next month so that the new spokesman for NA can be in attendance at the April meeting. Please speak up if you're a candidate or wish to nominate someone for the position.

Club Racing Chair and Staff

The CR Chair will continue to be appointed by the CCA National Board who will seek formal input from CRAC regarding this appointment.

In the event of the Chair's incapacity, the National Competition Steward will serve as Acting Chair.

The National Club Racing Registrar will make copies of the CR database every few months for the National Office. In the long term, the National Office will be trained to take over routine clerical chores.

A marketing/sponsorship person or company will be sought to generate CR revenue, possibly on a contingency basis.

The motion to approve Scott Hughes as Chair of CR for the year 2000 was unanimously approved by all in attendance. The result of that motion will be forwarded to the National Board for their confirmation at their March meeting.

You can help CR grow by contacting your regional CRAC member with your thoughts and ideas, so they may be brought out at the planning meeting.

Bimmers Across the Border is a wonderful event. We get to do something collaboratively with the folks from the Boston Chapter. We have the track for three days in the middle of summer and even enjoy dips in the Whirlpool swimming hole. The club races have been great. And no question that the blues festival at Tremblant Resort is a wonderful way to enjoy the value-added that makes this event into a wonderful vacation for the family while we play with our cars.

For these reasons and more I was extremely disappointed that we had to cancel this event for 2000.

Vince Loughran, track manager, phoned me recently to update me on the situation at LeCircuit, Mt. Tremblant following the sale of the facility to Lawrence Stroll of the Tommy Hilfiger Group. There is great news for the long term. Extensive renovations costing millions of dollars will be made to the track surface, buildings and overall infrastructure. Furthermore, the track will remain available to clubs and for club race events. Therefore, we can expect the track facility to be a spectacular one in what is already a world-class resort and with every likelihood that we will be regular and welcome users in the future.

The bad news is that the renovations are planned to begin as soon as the weather allows this Spring and they are expected to take months to complete. There are, therefore, officially no guaranteed dates for 2000. As things now stand, the best guess, if the work commences early and goes smoothly, is that dates MAY be open in mid to late September. And so, BAB4 is not to be in 2000. But just think about what we have to look forward to when the facility is modernized. Dare I say the best in North America!

Otherwise, we're doing what we can to make alternate arrangements for this season. The Bluenose Chapter was extremely gracious to offer to host the event at Atlantic Motorsport Park but there were an insufficient number of racers interested in making the drive for us to pursue it. Nevertheless, I am determined to get racing going out East and you can be sure with proper planning we will pull this off. My hat's off to George, Gerry, and the other chapter members for trying to make this work on such short notice.

Hopefully, by the time you read this we will have another plan in place for a combined school and club race weekend. We'll see whether we can set something up at Mosport or Shannonville. Believe it or not, this is hard to arrange when you only have a few months to do it in.

As you know from reading my 1999 competition tire guide and comparison article (still available on our club web site) I was pretty optimistic about the potential of the BFG g-Force as a driving school and club race tire and a worthy successor to the famous R1. I was so excited about its performance potential that I even decided to make it my race tire. Well that turned out to be a bad personal decision for the 1999 season. Here's the story behind the story.

The g-Forces come at racing depth (3/32") so no shaving of the tire is necessary for optimal performance. But they do have to be heat cycled. In lieu of getting mine commercially heat cycled I opted to highway drive my first set and then dismount them to properly cure in the garage. I heat cycled a second set at LeCircuit on the Friday of BAB3.

My co-driver, Rick Stormer, and I got a couple of practice runs in on Saturday using a tire pyrometer and pressure gauge to set the ideal hot pressures. I ran the sprint race at the conclusion of Saturday without incident although I did not feel the tires were anything remarkable. At this point, I'd say we had about sixty minutes of track time on the tires.

We rotated the tires on Sunday morning and re-did the pressures. We put in a few laps in warm-up just to makes sure everything was OK. Our plan was for me to run the first half of the enduro and for Rick to do the second half.

After a few laps of the race, it was clear that the tires were just not going to stick. I could not use my regular braking points and my usual line and speed around corners. Race cars I should be keeping up with or passing were getting away. Something was wrong but what the heck, let's finish the race.

When I came in for our mandatory pit stop I told Rick the car was not hooked up and to be careful. He did just that but managed to have fun anyway. Its interesting to watch him on the in-car video try to deal with the squirminess and still try to dice with another car.

We had a friendly wager with Luka Serdar and Jim Jervinis who were co-driving Jim's car that the loser would buy beers. When the race was over it was time for Rick and to eat some humble pie since we lost the wager.

As we crowded around my car someone noticed a problem and quickly pointed it out. The left front tire was badly corded. It was pretty hard not to notice the patch almost half the width of the tire completely around it right down to the steel cord and THROUH IT in a couple of spots. The left front was worse than anything I'd ever seen.

We got the wheel with tire off the car and I rolled it down to the Talon Tire truck for them to take back to Montreal and inspection by the folks at BFG. It was looked at by them and the official report appears below.

The following weekend, I was at Tremblant again for a drivers' school where I used the g-Forces again. I corded another one, not nearly as badly as during the race, but that convinced me to park the car. A few other BMW drivers were also running g-Forces and they also had wear problems. Interestingly, folks running Kumho V-700s reported no problems with wear. It was becoming clear to me that the rough racing surface at Tremblant was probably tearing the g-Force to pieces.

The next big test of the g-Force for me was Mosport Dayze I. While I had a hard time dialing the car in I did not experience extraordinary wear like that I had at Tremblant. I did notice that the tires reached their peak performance after a few heat cycles and then begins to fade. At the same time, that greasy feeling that others talk about becomes noticeable. It is also noticeable if tire pressures are wrong or if the tires get too hot (i.e., when the tread is near the curing temperature of 230 degrees F.).

Bill Lorenz, a fellow club racer and driving school instructor, shared a ride in my car at both NHIS and Lime Rock later in the Fall 1999. Bill had a set of Kumhos mounted on the same stock rims as my g-Forces so we were able to do some subjective comparisons.

We both noticed that the g-Force is a very quiet tire. It doesn't make any noise before it lets go. The car just gets squirrelly without any warning sounds. Personally, I like to feel and hear my track tires letting go.

Performance-wise, we found the two tires comparable although we did not time ourselves and cannot give you lap-by-lap comparisons. But we both felt the two tires are within the same range of one another. The Kumhos are cheaper, appear to last longer, and come full tread (i.e., 6/32") so they are good as a rain tire. And at this point I think they give you better feedback.

I was also in Indianapolis in July 1999 for the BMW CCA Oktoberfest where we had a day-long meeting about Club Racing. During a break, I ran into Dave Sanders of BF Goodrich. We spoke briefly about their DOT-R competition tire, the g-Force. He said the company was pleased with the performance of the tire in smaller diameters (i.e., 13"-15") but were planning some changes in larger sizes (i.e., 16"-18" diameters). He emphasized that the g-Force is especially well suited to cars which have not undergone extensive suspension modifications in keeping with the tradition of the venerable R1."

"I had a recent conversation with Dave Sanders, and though he did not confess to any problem, he did state that they have been changing compounds."

"The last info I heard is that there are/were 3 generations of the tires so far; 1st wasn't optimally vulcanized, 2nd had an 'incorrect' compound, 3rd (about Aug/Sep I would think) had a better compound."

"These tires seem to work well when new, after they heat cycle they appear to get very hard. I tested the durometer on my set and found they went from about 55 to over 85. My wife's car tires (a year old, were about 70). You cannot race on hard rubber! If you have these tires I hardly recommend that you test for hardness before you go out.

"I just returned from an HSR event at Daytona and have learned that a number of racers have found the same problem of the tires hardening after heat cycling."

"First, you need to remember there are *three* generations of g-Force tires out there. Your experiences will likely be vastly different depending on which generation of tire you've used.

IMHO first gen tires (build dates in 1998) were, well... less than stellar. They had problems with irregular wear. There are very few of these tires still out there for sale, but check the build date to be sure. If the price is right, I'd still get them. Just don't expect them to last too long.

The second (99 build dates w/3 steel belts) are excellent tires. With proper inflation pressures they are a terrific tire for M3s, MRoadsters, and MCoupes. I set the SCCA T2 track record at Mid-Ohio and two Rocky Mountain Division tracks on them so they couldn't be all *that* bad.

The third generation tires (build dates late 99 w/only 1 steel belt in 16" & 17" sizes) are not as responsive, but have a softer compound which may or may not work better for you than the 2nd gen tires depending on your setup and driving style.

General consensus is that the 2nd gen tire in 16" and 17" is the best, but that the 3rd gen tire in 14" and 15" is best.

Secondly, I have not experienced the "hardening". I've found that a good heat cycle is necessary to wear off the mold release and get g-Forces to perform at their best. (The M-O track record was set on 2nd gen tires with 3 or 4 cycles on them.) The tires work well right up to a point just before they begin to show cord."

Hoosiers may be a little faster and Kumhos may last longer, but IMHO there's nothing inherently "wrong" with BFG g-Forces, at least not those built since 1998."

"The tires I have had personal experience with were 16". They were made in August of 1999. When I first used them they had great turn in, however, they would wash out in the turn. The next time I used them they were like a rock. My durometer scale showed about 85. My truck tires are 75, most racing tires will usually fall into the 55 range."

Here's the note I sent to BFG Canada followed by the reply I received on voice mail.

"As you know I experienced severe wear problems on a set of BFG g-Forces which had been carefully heat cycled and set up according to direction from the manufacturer. During testing, for example, we recorded hot tire pressures of 40 degrees and tire temps in the 180-190 degree range across the tread surface. The tires began to fail after only a few track sessions. Two were corded, one of which was to the cord in a wide patch in the center and THROUGH the cord in two or more spots. This tire was returned to Talon and sent to Rallye Tire for examination by BFG engineers.

Just today I received this information from a respected BMW tuner and professional race driver, who insisted on anonymity, which may explain the failures:

According to an acquaintance that works for Michelin in S.C., there is a simple explanation for everyone's frustration and varying results with the G-Force. You're dealing with more than one tire. The first ones (sorry, no idea if it was the first month, first 3 months, etc) off the line suffered from vulcanizing problems. The tires weren't "bad" per se, but the useful life was diminished quite a bit. I'm quite sure these are all gone by now. Later runs saw this problem resolved. The G-Force is currently undergoing a redesign to address some of these issues that have arisen, you might see something new this spring, then again they may arrive "quietly".

I checked the date of manufacture on my first set of tires of which two have already failed: 498 or the 49th week of 1998.

The second set which I have only heat cycled three tires was manufactured later: 179 or the 17th week of 1999.

I would appreciate your bringing my experiences with the g-Forces and this new information to the attention of BFG Canada in the hopes that we can resolve this problem and probably replace some or all of the tires I have purchased.

Regards,
Phil Abrami

Here is the voice mail reply I received:

"Wear has clearly been a problem on the g-Forces in 1999. It is being addressed. Basically, there is not enough under tread in the original design. The tires are faster (than the old R1s) and one reason for that is there is less rubber under the tread. That means that once you get down to basically a slick the tires tend to fall away faster than the older version. BFG engineers hope to solve the wear problem for next year."

As of this writing, I have no additional news to report on the situation with the g-Force tire for the 2000 season. The old R1 was a great success for the company. It appears that they were unable to continue production when a competitor refused to extend a licensing agreement on one or more key patents. BFG has a long tradition of service to BMW enthusiasts in North America, solo 1 and solo 2 competitors, and club racers. I have little doubt that the company has spent the winter months working to make dramatic improvements to the g-Force. Therefore, I am going to send this report to BFG Canada and ask for a reply. I am sure that the feedback we receive will renew our confidence in their line of high performance and DOT-R competition tires. I'll pass on what I learn.