Track Tires - What's Next? ContiRaceAttack Test!
Posted by Scott Lian on Wed, Feb 10, 2010 @ 05:12 PM
Many have heard that Boston Moto will no longer be the Pirelli race tire vendor for the Loudon Road Racing Series for 2010. While this was not our plans for 2010, a silver lining has presented itself. There has been much attention being paid to the new-for-the- US ContiRaceAttack line of tires.. and it's got us a bit intrigued.
First approached in 2009, we were intrigued by a new-to-market tire brand and began to do some digging into what the new ContiRaceAttack lineup was receiving for early reviews. We scoured the internet for feedback, including developments on the WERA boards and elsewhere... and were unable to find a single negative review regarding the performance of the tires.
After this positive initial impression... we were curious to try them for ourselves. Even more so, it would be better to have the opinion of a trusted top-shelf local club racer... the trouble is... there aren't a whole lot of chances to test tires before the riding season starts up in New Hampshire.
So we turned to the West Coast distributor, SuperBike Tires to try and get some feedback. I called up Mark who runs the show on the West Coast and found out he's also involved with The Track Club, a track day provider in California.
After more than an hour on the phone, Mark (who is also a Dunlop vendor and former Pirelli vendor) had me convinced we needed to try these tires ourselves and generously suggeste we come try them on for size.
We were excited, and wanted to find out more. Next up I called Victor Pena from Next Level Motorsports who began carrying Contis in the South East CCS Region towards the end of 2009.
Victor again, echoed the positive feedback of the tires, reaffirming that the ContiRaceAttack offers the grip of a Pirelli tire, with the durability of a Dunlop while providing durability nearly double its nearest competitor...
Thanks Victor and Mark for your insight. Feedback from vendors carrying multiple brands with real world experience working with club-level riders and track day junkies is invaluable.
We heard vendors' experience and have seen actual rider reveiws from the horse's mouth and well, we're beginning to see a trend here. Here's some of that feedback from the racers themselves (courtesy: Next Level Motorsports), and click the banner below for Tom Vosnick's reveiw.
So are we convinced yet? Not entirely... but we are very curious, and excited to get some track time on ContiRaceAttacks before the start of the 2010 season... and we'll be doing just that in 2 weeks, joining several moto-journalists at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, CA for a 2-Day Tire Test where we'll push ourselves, and these new tires to the limit.
The best part, the 2-day event won't just be our chance to try out the new ContiRace Attack's... we're hoping to bring a multi-class LRRS expert champion along for the test...
Stay tuned.