Experiences with Hoosier R6?
 

Hi gents. Was wondering if any of you can share your experiences running Hoosier R6 tires in sprint races about 25 minutes long.

Thanks.

225/45/15 in ITS, ITE and PT_. I liked them, ran them to around 40psi hot, started around 32psi. No issues in a sprint race, I could tell how many heat cycles were on them though. For me, I'd take stickers and do 3-5 laps qualifying then a sprint race on Sat, repeat on Sun. There is 4 heat cycles, use those tires for 2-3 practice sessions before the next race weekend and 6-7 heat cycles later I was done with them, they still had lots of tread left. For a DOT tire, i think they are the winner. Now I'm on slicks....

From what I'm gathering you're better off using A6s because the Rs drop off so fast after 10 or 12 heat cycles with lots of rubber remaining so you may as well get As which don't seem to drop off as much and you get better grip for more cycles because the rubber stays decent all the way down to the cords.

they are working for us. the hoosiers are wider than the other tires (R888, hankook etc etc) so a 225 hoosier is really more like a 235 hankook. so you can run a 225/45/15 on a 15x7, but a 15x8 is better.

we get 2/3 weekends on a set, we could probably get 4, but we've had some carnage.

do you guys follow hoosier's curing process and timeline to obtain the longevity mentioned above?

thanks

I've got a good bit of time on the R6 and A6. I normally don't follow curing procedure. I have, but really haven't been able to tell a significant difference. As we all know, the A6 is the AutoX compound and the R6 is the Road Race Compound. For several years, I always heard the A6's would overheat very quickly(within a lap). This was quickly proven false in the Southeast region. My friend Jerry Onks(in a much heavier C6Z), the STO National Points Champ, has been racing on A6's for many years now... T1 and STO. He practices on his old set, qualifies on the new set, and then races on the same set. While the A6's do fall off in a sprint race, from the data I've collected, they still stay faster than an R6 and fall off in a consistent manner and are still predictable. The other huge benefit, in my opinion, is when you get the green flag, you have alot of grip... grip that gives you confidence to get around that one car or out brake another. The R6's will take a couple of laps to come up to temp, but will stay pretty consistent throughout the race. The A6 has grip immediately. As far as sprint races go. You could prob. get 2-3 race weekends out of a set of R6's depending on how competitive you want to be. I'll run them 5-6 DE weekends. The other thing I think I should mention, everything is relative. I'm not sure how the tracks you are running on are on tires, but if they are really hard on tires, it might be more beneficial to run a R6 over an A6. We have a couple of tracks where I run that I would question the A6 in long term situations.

IMO dont count out the Kumho 710's, similar stick to an A6. Been running them for 2 seasons now and am getting around 6 hours out of a set (maybe more). I find them to be really consistent, as they age they need an extra lap to get hot but once they are hot they still stick close to new. I run on 2 tracks, one is a really abrasive and short go kart track. If I really try I can overheat the tire after 20minutes, but with reasonable driving its not a problem. On the longer track I havent been able to overheat the tire in a 30 minute session.

Never have tried it.

The A6 is the same compound as the bias ply R55a according to Hoosier. I haven't ran an A6, but the R55a is certainly much stickier than an R6.

You can certainly get 2-3 weekends out of an R6, but they will be noticeably slower. It's not like the RA1 that gets fast right before it cords.

Yeah, I'm running RA1 right now in SM in my rookie season. They are pretty nice IMO. I've done 8 race weekends on them having started at 6/32 (for early season rain races) and am now down to around 2/32. Sometimes double-stinting between SM and ITA and sometimes on double regional races so lots of time on them. They still feel great. Pretty sticky, very communicative, easy to drive at the limit and recover once over the limit.

SCCA National just switched to Hoosier SM6 which are basically the R6 from what I've read. I'm concerned about the switch as it seems the Hoosier won't last as long as the RA1. I can make the RA1 work to my budget since I'm not fast enough or rich enough to care about being up front and shaving them to 2/32nds. I can start them at 4/32nds and probably get 5-7 race weekends out of them so budget friendly. Seems like the Hoosiers will last half that time.

keep running the Ra1's. we started running TTE/PTE this season and we didn't switch to hoosiers until midway thru the season, as we had a couple sets of hankooks to use up. if you're not on the podium/top 5 it shouldn't be a problem that you're on last years tire, in fact you won't be the only one.

since we switched to hoosiers, we haven't run an enduro, so i don't know how long they will last. wear is really good, but we don't know about heat cycles yet.