Rickie Smith had a problem.

The King, N.C. drag racer couldn’t make his 2012 Camaro NHRA Pro Mod drag racer run down the drag strip at Bristol Dragway. Like so many drivers before him, Smith found the answer in the Goodyear tire trailer before the start of eliminations for the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals.

“We couldn’t get down the track on Saturday at all,” Smith said. “The track got pretty slick. We came back and put these big Goodyears on the car today for the first round and that just brought the car alive.”

Alive, indeed. Smith won the final round with a 5.991-second blast down the strip, clocking in at 240.47 mph. It was the second win in as many NHRA Pro Mod races for drivers equipped with Goodyear tires.

Competition is open among tiremakers in the NHRA Pro Mod category.

The ‘big Goodyear,’ Smith put on the car was a pair of D1230 drive tires. The D1230 measures 36 inches tall and 17 inches across the tread face. It mounts on a 16-inch rim and the construction includes Goodyear’s D2A tread compound. The D1230’s 114-inch roll out is among the largest in Goodyear’s racing inventory.

“That’s what we won (the same race) on last year,” Smith said. “This D1230 tire.”
           
When prompted about not taking his Goodyears off the car, Smith grinned and said, “We probably won’t.”