Here are my Sunday race day tires…probably a bit dirty from rolling through scales and from transport. These were run at 16 psi in the 23-lap main.
RF
LF
LR
RR
Not an expert by any means just observations, but really looks like the fronts were overinflated. Maybe used 60% of the available tread width, wear markers are barely touched. This is pretty static from rolling around not indicative of the contact patch while driving, but you can see where there was only a small bit in contact with the ground.
Rears look decent, but the same look as if not much rubber was in contact with the track. A small amount of sliding/graining on the LR, but makes sense going CW around the track.
Hindsight 20/20 and judging from an office chair, but it would have been interesting to just dump them to 7-8psi cold. Yellows are pretty soft and perhaps more rubber in contact is better than get the center strip nice and warm. Did you take any hot readings after starting at around 16psi cold? And who knows maybe you had the perfect pressures and dropping them could have sucked. 
Edit: also what rims were you on? 3Fs?
Only way to get heat into the tires at RA is to pump them up. Contact patch is irrelevant if the tire doesn’t get into its working window. Then you’re just generating scrub with the increased contact patch, not actually using it to go faster.
I talked to a few frontrunners in KA who noted that they tried low pressures and the tires would never come up to temp, and they also lost a chunk of speed on the straight from the extra rolling resistance.
Good to know. Just curious, my move and buying a house this year killed my racing budget. Next year I hope to run either the SKUSA or USPKS schedule so perhaps I’ll be at RA. I’ll finally be out of that weird early 30s age range, so Masters here I come!
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I was running the Lynx wheels in the final on Sunday, which are a bit more grip than the 3F. I think either the Lynx or 3F would have been an equally good choice for the main due to the longer run, and higher track temps at that point in the day.
Contact patch on the RF looks especially small due to the track-specific demands on that tire. As TJ mentioned, going too low on air quickly becomes apparent at Road America because it basically induces a four wheel slide from center off, if not the entire corner. This wear pattern was similar on all other competitors in X30 Masters.
A couple other data points to consider:
- my quickest lap was on lap 20/23
- I was lapping within a tenth of my quickest lap beginning on lap 9
- Lap times were very consistent aside from laps 15 and 16…another kart slowed on lap 15 causing me to have to go into the marbles exiting the last corner. This basically grenaded two laps at once, as it took me four corners to scrub the crap off my tires
Here’s a look at my Mychron from the main:
EDIT: here’s a quick scroll through the lap times:
Cmon man, 8/100th spread? Can you tighten that up a bit? 
@Bimodal_Rocket - the problem wasn’t consistency, it’s that I was consistently SLOW 
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You are as quick as Norberg adjusted for age, weight, height and skill. Most likely. One way to look at it.
I am goign to start using this EVERY SINGLE RACE.
As we drink beer after the race… “I was as fast as the leader once you adjust for age, weight, and skill.”
Love it!!
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Does Norberg even drink beer? Those pros sure are thin.
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I’ve never seen him drinking, I think I’ve only heard about him getting drunk once, but that’s part of why he’s where he is and we’re here.
Good for him! One less obstacle on his way to global domination.