When the question “can off-road trucks race on snow?” was first posed, there were a lot of unknowns, not the least of which was whether or not the trucks would actually run at sub-zero temperatures. Turns out they do, and with some minor tweaks they do it pretty well. When Ricky Johnson first tested his truck in the snow, however, it was obvious that the specialized tires he raced with in the desert would not be much help.
Enter BFGoodrich, who approached a unique tire solution for Red Bull Frozen Rush with the full-throttle effort required of any component bolted to a 900hp off-road truck. A standard snow tire has about 100 spikes in it, so they revved up and packed nearly 700 spikes into the one-off, not-for-sale tires used at Frozen Rush.
Learn more about the process in the video below:
At the event, the trucks roll out of their pits and into a special corral where the BFGoodrich crew pops off their usual wheel/tire combo and replaces it with the studded set-up. The drivers take their laps on the course, be it for practice or their head-to-head match-ups, then it’s back to the corral for another switcheroo back to the old shoes.
If not for the tires, Red Bull Frozen Rush wouldn’t be much of a rush at all, with drivers spinning their wheels off trying to get away from the start gate. Instead, we get massive roosts of snow as the drivers charge into turns and the spikes send the powder flying.
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