Halbert wrote:
> At the speedway where I grew up (Oswego Speedway 
> http://www.oswegospeedway.com/), the raced what they would call "super 
> modified" cars. One of the drivers showed me his car once and it looked 
> to me like they pretty much would build the cars from the ground up.
> Anyway, the tires on these cars had no tread on them whatsoever. It made 
> me wonder why that didn't cause a problem getting a good grip on the 
> pavement. I still don't know, but the racing tires looked completely 
> smooth.
> Like this:
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 

No tread actually grips a smooth track better.  The problem is that once 
you overcome the friction and lose traction, you lose complete control 
of the car.  The tread is like a claw that grabs the ground, giving back 
control.

You'll see them switch between the no-tread and treaded tires in 
situation when they think they could lose traction, ie when it looks 
like it'll rain they put on treaded tires.  The all-weather tires most 
people use on their cars have tread for this same reason, and snow tires 
have an unusually pronounced tread on them.

...Chambers

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