Goodyear Tire Of Choice Among Top Alcohol Teams

Goodyear has more wins in the NHRA’s two Top Alcohol classes in national events, 14, than all other tiremakers combined. Goodyear has won nine of the 12 national races in TAD & five of the 12 in TAFC.

In the starting field for the 2006 MAC Tools U.S. Nationals, 14 of the 16 starters in the Top Alcohol Dragster category raced on Goodyear tires & eight of the 16 starters in the Top Alcohol Funny Car field used Goodyears.

“I’ve always raced on Goodyear tires,” said TAFC star Bob Newberry. “I think they’re better tires. I think they’re safer tires. I like the construction & I like the way they wear. We get double the runs we’d get on other tires.”

Goodyear offers a variety of tires to competitors in the two Alcohol classes. The tire of choice among Goodyear-shod teams in the TAFC teams is the D1022.

Newberry has won world championships in two categories & two sanctioning bodies. He won the NHRA’s Competition Eliminator title in 1979, the 1991 TAFC championship in the International Hot Rod Association & has twice won the NHRA TAFC crown (1993 & 2005). He is a 48-time national event winner in NHRA racing.

Steve Gasparrelli has raced TAFC cars for eight years, after taking over the driving duties in the family racecar from his dad, Lou Gasparrelli. Steve won the 2006 national event at Heartland Park Topeka, Kan., after winning four times last year.

“The good thing about this tire is that it is real repeatable from run to run,” the younger Gasparrelli said. “It’s very consistent.”

Bill Reichert, the TAD winner at Indy, made his four elimination passes on the same set of Goodyear tires & the elapsed times were all within one tenth of a second of each other.

If consistency is your aim, Duane Shields, one of the best TAD drivers in the country, said Goodyear is the right choice. Shields said he got 41 passes on one set of Goodyear D1230 rear drive tires this season.

“The tire takes whatever you want to give it,” Shields said. “It takes the power.”

Shields set a category record at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis when he posted a 5.208-second pass. It was the best lap since the advent of the 97-percent rule, Shields said.