At three events with large run groups on long courses 19.6% of drivers on street tires got their best time on the first or second of four runs. For R-compound shod cars it was 17.0%. I'm ignoring slicks because of the low number of cars but the results are similar to R-compounds.

At two events with smaller run groups on much shorter courses on asphalt 23.3% of drivers on street tires got their best time on the first or second of four runs. For R-compound shod cars it was 22.2%. Three factors maybe at work here: Shorter courses can be figured out in fewer runs, lower-grip asphalt diminishes the benefit of hotter tires on later runs, and smaller run groups mean the tires cool less between runs.

At three events with the smaller run groups on asphalt all with a course almost identical to one run at the preceeding event, 38.8% street-tire drivers scored their best runs on the the first or second attempt. 28.7% of the R-compound drivers did the same. That increase from 23.3% to 38.8% based on familiarity with the course is starkly greater than the 22.2% to 28.7% increase for R-compound tires.

It would to seem to confirm what I experienced with both Z1 Star Specs and now with Hankook RS-3s. Unlike R-compounds and slicks, they slow down when they get hot. A few cars monitored with Federal 595's, RE11's, and ZII's appeared to have the same problem. I'm no longer throwing away my first run as irrelevant by testing the limits of the course, and I'm spraying the tires four times between runs. The other thing I have learned with the Hankook on the S Roadster is that they really, really like smooth and tidy. I may be able to lower my tire pressures since I'm leaning on them less which I used to do to get heat into radial R-compounds on a 1550 lb. car and the normally aspirated MINI HT didn't seem to mind at all.

For the statistically minded, there were near 50 in each tire category at the concrete events and near 40 street and 30 R-compound at the asphalt events. As for the nearly identical courses, it had a loop at the beginning and that loop only was run backwards the second day. So Version 1 was run on a Saturday, Version 2 on the next day, with this being repeated two months later. We ran 2/3rds of that course in the same direction at four consecutive events.