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NHRA: Richardson: Champion's Goodyear Tires 'Faster'
Edmond Richardson, the Greenbrier, Tenn. drag racer, grabbed his fourth career NHRA national championship when he took the 2009 Stock Eliminator title. He was one of four drivers to win an NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series sportsman championship on Goodyear tires, more than all other tiremakers combined.
Richardson campaigned in both the Stock and Super Comp categories in 2009 and was a winner in both. The cars were very different but they had a common thread: Both were equipped with Goodyear tires. The Stock tire is Goodyear’s D4205 radial. The D4205 measures 30 inches tall and has a nine-inch tread width. Its construction includes Goodyear’s very successful D4B tread compound.
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"With this tire, the car is three or four hundredths faster," Richardson said. "It (the D4205) produces more wheel speed and it seems like the 60-foot time repeats time after time."
Richardson’s first national championship came in 1989 and he has spread the titles through his career. But his fourth national title was made memorable because of very special contributions made by his family. First, his eldest daughter, Ashley Edwards, gave birth to Richardson’s first grandchild in January. Richardson spent much of the early part of the year concentrating on his family and did not run his first race until April. Then Ryan, Richardson’s 14-year-old son, broke his arm and curtailed his baseball season.
"All he kept telling me was, ‘Now we can go racing,’" the elder Richardson said. "He kind of picked out the races we’d go to. Then, when we doubled (won twice at the same event), I asked him, ‘Where are we going now?’"
It turns out they went straight to the championship.
Richardson said that, when he isn’t listening to his son’s scheduling expertise, he listens to Goodyear’s engineers at the races. "I’m with them all the time. It’s important for us (the sportsman racers). When the manufacturer takes the time out to talk to the little guy, that means a lot."
The collective wisdom of Goodyear’s engineering staff has helped Richardson do more than win races. He’s been able to save money, too, by using a minimal number of tires during the season.
Richardson estimated his team gets 70 or 80 passes on a set of D4205s and, "It takes about three sets to run the season, but we make a lot of runs because we test and we run bracket races, so it takes us four sets."
Richardson uses Goodyear’s D1022 on his Super Comp car. A bias-ply tire, the D1022 is a product Richardson said he would never forget.
"I love the (D)1022 because it gave me my first US Nationals win this year," he said.
Richardson’s crew chief is Johnny Gault. Richardson lives in Greenbrier with wife Sue and sons Ryan, Blake and Austin. Daughter Ashley lives in Florida with her family. Edmond Richardson is the owner/operator of Edmond Richardson Motorsports and the Edmond Richardson School of Drag Racing.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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