Wet Sears Point (Sonoma) after repave

[cpc]

What's the general consensus of riding Sear's Point (Sonoma) when wet on trackday rubber, not rain tires?

I have done a few wet laps there before the repave, and on street tires, it was slow but not as squirrely as I thought it was going to be.

I have a fresh set of Supercorsa sc3 mounted, and have had very few miles on them and zero miles at a damp Sear's day post repave.

Thoughts?

TIA!!!

David

 

[cpc]

Well, color me impressed.
They don't call them DOTs for nothing....

 

[tuxumino]

did you ride in the rain. I chickened out when the rain started falling at lunch but the morning was pretty good.

 

[cpc]

I did a few laps while it was raining, but yeah, there were two good sessions in the morning, and I felt like quitting while I was ahead.
Mainly, I was impressed with how much feedback and confidence the tires gave in the first session, which, while not really raining, was very slick.

 

[mjj]

I have been provided with sources that say on clean wet tarmac we can expect 80% traction as opposed to clean dry tarmac. This is probably far within my pucker zone, so I never concerned myself with it being wet. "It's clean" I would tell myself. This even worked on tar snakes once, on Hwy 36. They look scary but looks do not always translate into performance.

 

[Tally Whacker]

Before the repave Sonoma was as slick as snot in the rain. Very challenging.

 

[ThinkFast]

In the Midwest we raced rain or shine. The track officials called it a wet race when there was enough water on the track to throw a rooster tail, at which point they would red flag a race in progress so everyone could come in and change to rain tires.

Race DOTs are made with the same compound as slicks, just with tread sipes.

They require heat for grip and are slicker than snot on a doorknob until they get heat in them. Water on the track keeps them below their operating temperature, so you really can’t race very well on them.

Street tires don’t have this problem- they work stone cold.

I wouldn’t go out in the wet on race DOTs (or slicks) at Sears or anywhere else.