1 or 2 week ban on oil based additive

[J'MM'N]

Turning the carpet over is certainly not an option, cleaning it would possibly help on appearance, but probably do nothing on extending its life.

The condition of the carpet itself is due to using water and oil based additives together. We all know what happens when we add these two together and this along with the foam and rubber particles is what has made the carpet so rank looking.

As to the wear and damage of the carpet itself, the additives aren't really the cause but the continuous use of racing on it. I'm guessing the carpet is probably nearing 15-20 years old and any carpet with week in, week out racing for that period of time would have similar amounts of wear if you used an additive or not.

Additives are an important thing, not only in grip but probably more so in getting the balance of the car right and this is probably more so in 1/12 pan cars of which we don't have many at the club. But with the amount of different sauces already soaked into the carpet then this probably doesn't bear much weight, as anyone running additive on a GT12 will notice after a couple of minutes into the race, that the cars handling changes due to all the sauce you pick up.

If one class is to use an additive, then it makes little difference if both classes use it and the answer is that you only use certain additives. Perhaps the club needs to decide on two or three makes of similar substance and only allow those, LRP/Nosram are the same. Banning additive for one class only, is not going to stop them putting it on before they get to the club, or applying other substances like lighter fluid.

So the answer long term is probably to use only certain additives chosen by the club or none at all. And as to the carpet I think it probably has a few years left in it, but it may well be worth thinking ahead in funding for the future.

As to the original subject of not using any additive on the track for a few weeks and see if it helps clean it, I'm all for experimenting and yes I think its worth a try.

Perhaps we should apply "Shake and Vac" to our tyres before each race and it'll save Shane cleaning