Choosing Dry When It's Wet can Pay Off

Tire choice in changing conditions is critical. What's good at the beginning of the race may not be the right choice at the end. Living with that choice until conditions change is a struggle that can be worth enduring.

Starting a wet race on dry tires when the rain has stopped can be a big gamble, but it can also be a big advantage. We saw it in the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, when Jonathan Goring and Andrew Carbonell went with dry tires for the nighttime Spec Miata race, which saw a rain shower right before the race start. Still drizzling as the cars gathered on the grid, many teams were wrestling with which tires to use. Although Goring and Carbonell spent the first 10 laps just holding on, as they track dried, they got faster and faster. In the final six laps, they went from sixth and seventh to first and second.

Danny Bender had a similar experience in a Battery Tender Mazda MX-5 Cup Presented by BFGoodrich Tires race at Road America. The 2014 SCCA Touring 4 National Champion started 11th on a wet track with dry tires. By the end of the race he was in first. The trick is what happens in between...