NHRA sportsmen, Goodyear at zMAX

Media contact:Lee Elder805-377-3537, mobile330-794-7302, desk

Goodyear-equipped cars win 3 times in sportsmen

      Concord, NC (Sept. 20, 2015) – In the crush of the final round of an NHRA national event, competitors want every advantage they can find.      At the Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway, one big advantage was having Goodyear tires on the race car. Goodyear-shod cars won six times out of a dozen categories, the best performance among tiremakers.      In the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series for sportsman racers, where competition is open among tiremakers, Goodyear won three times, as Duane Shields (Top Alcohol Dragster), Frank Aragona Jr. (Super Comp) and Glen Treadwell (Competition Eliminator) all won with Goodyear.      The warm ambient conditions made for hot track conditions and the professional and sportsman teams all searched for traction.      Shields (of Boulder City, Nev.) had not won at zMAX Dragway before Sunday. He said the Goodyear D2681 tires he used on the back of his dragster worked well in the challenging conditions.      “We’ve been running that (tire) going on two years and it works well. It transitions nicely and, for the A Fuel car, it’s a great tire to work with,” Shields said.Shields added that his crew made changes to the chassis in the final moments before each pass on Sunday.       “I know we changed each time in the staging lanes today because of the conditions,” Shields said. “We’ve been around a while and, with Goodyear behind us all the time, it works well.”      Aragona (Freehold, NJ) won in Super Comp and made it to the finals of Comp before losing to Treadwell. It was amazing his Super Comp car was even running Sunday. The chassis broke earlier in the weekend.      “The chassis was broken during a burn out,” Aragona said. “Luckily my Dad was able to fix it and we got up there for the first round and here we are in the Winners Circle. I can’t even believe it myself.”      Aragona’s dragster races with Goodyear’s D2775 drive tires on the rear.      Treadwell (Sorrento, Fla.) said his Goodyears and the hot track gave him an advantage.      “I think consistency was the key,” Treadwell said. “We had enough tire on it. There were other cars blowing ‘em off and we were not.”      Goodyear employs about 69,000 people at manufacturing plants and facilities in 22 nations. Based in Akron, Ohio, Goodyear is among the largest tiremakers in the world and is the worldwide leader in race tire innovation.