You seem to have bought hook, line and sinker the Michelin line.
Perhaps, if the Michelin teams had done their research they would have
come to the race with the proper tires. You conveniently ignore the
fact that those Michelin teams ran in last year's race and know all
too well that Indy has a nine degree bank coming out of corner 12.
Then of course the Michelin teams also wanted to lower the tire
pressure for the added grip.

They could have worked around their poor choices without jumping to
the conclusion that driver would have been killed. Nobody in their
right mind would wanted that. But they had choices and elected to
over-play the safety card to coverup their lack of performance
combined with poor planning and a total disregard for the fans many of
whom came to see those teams.

You're free to buy whatever you wish. I'll repeat -- The Bridgestone
S02's are GREAT and I'll continue to "put" them on my Porsche's. But
you've raised an interesting point -- I wonder how many of those
Porsche GT driver's that raced before the farce had Bridgestone's?
I'll dare them differ! And imagine -- they dared to disagree with
your opinion. What a shame!.

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 12:55:40 -0700, "Jim Keenan" <jimkeenan (AT) cox (DOT) net>
wrote:

"Curious" <NoMail (AT) SomewhereElse (DOT) org> wrote

I haven't bought hooks, line or sinkers from Michelin, but I've had their
tires on cars over the years and they have invariably performed well and
been well worth the cost. The point is not whether Michelin screwed up their
race compound for Indy - they clearly did and they'll reap the bad PR
whirlwind that goes with it. The point is does this meltdown of a purpose
built race tire translate to the tires I'll be putting on my car. I think
not.
They had a crash on Friday that was directly attributed to tire failure, and
their analysis of the failure led them to believe it was due to a
characteristic of the tire rather than an isolated incident. You say nobody
would want to see a driver killed, but you're sure steamed the Michelin
teams didn't race on tires they were told were faulty......

But they had choices and elected to
How do you overplay the safety card? How much safety is enough? They had a
crash involving tire failure already - should they wait until they had
another? Or two more? If they'd balled up a car in the race and took a few
other cars out in the process you'd be screaming they never should have been
on the track with faulty rubber.

Do you really believe Michelin came to Indy with a faulty tire intending to
pull all their teams out of the race at the 11th hour and piss off the fans?
Get serious. They screwed up their design of a specialty tire trying to gain
a performance advantage and as I said, they'll have to deal with the PR
fallout for that. But how much fallout would they be dealing with if they
sent their teams out and someone got hurt or worse because of tires Michelin
couldn't vouch for?
That's right, and after having Bridgestones on a 280ZX Turbo, I'm sticking
to Michelin.

I'll repeat -- The Bridgestone
I'll repeat - Porsche doesn't put Bridgestones on Carreras as OEM, and
that's good enough for me.

But
That Porsche does not put Bridgestones on Carreras as original equipment is
not opinion - it's a fact. While you're researching how many of the GT cars
had Bridgestones, tally up all the cars on Michelins as well - they dared to
disagree with your opinion.

I agree with most of your comment. There is plenty of blame to go
around with the exception of the fans; other than those morons who
threw crap on the track.

Having said that the FIA has sent notices to all the teams as follows:

In identical letters to the seven team bosses published by the FIA on
Tuesday, Formula One’s governing body, who has summoned the teams to
appear before the World Motor Sport Council next Wednesday, listed a
number of charges.

The charges given are that, according to the FIA, each team:

.. failed to ensure that they had a supply of suitable tyres for the
race
.. wrongfully refused to allow their cars to start the race
.. wrongfully refused to allow their cars to race, subject to a speed
restriction in one corner which was safe for such tyres as they had
available
.. combined with other teams to make a demonstration damaging to the
image of Formula One by pulling into the pits immediately before the
start of the race
.. failed to notify the stewards of their intention not to race, in
breach of Article 131 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.

Article 131 states: "The starting grid will be published four hours
before the race. Any competitor whose car(s) is (are) unable to start
for any reason whatsoever (or who has good reason to believe that
their car(s) will not be ready to start) must inform the stewards
accordingly at the earliest opportunity and, in any event, no later
than 45 minutes before the start of the race.”

The FIA told the teams they will be sent a full dossier of the charges
within the next 24 hours and invited them to send any comments they
should have in writing prior to their meeting with the Council in
Paris on June 29.

In the end; 1) F1 has clearly suffered a PR disaster in the USA, and
2) all the fans deserve a full refund perhaps collectively funded by
Michelin, FIA, Bernie and the teams.

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 21:12:47 -0700, The Dead Senator
<deadsenator (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote: