About halfway into the 2nd day of the VIR South event, my 195/50/14 Falken Azenis decided that they would have some low speed vibration. I have probably run a half-dozen autocrosses on them (they were driven to the events) and a track weekend (VIR North) prior to this.
It seemed to be coming from one wheel (I believe left right was where I saw the most cupping) but the thing was, it got better as I picked up speed, so I just made sure I didn't slow down too much for the slower turns.
Visual inspection shows the cupping right where the water grooves in the tread are molded. On the drive home on Saturday, the vibration persisted at higher speeds. I swapped for my other set of wheels for Sunday and haven't looked at or driven them since. I have tracked other street tires (Bridgestone RE730's and S-03's) which never did this which would look normal after some street driving.
Any thoughts as to what is going on and what if anything I need to do to the tire(s) to extract the few remaining event(s) they have left? Should I rebalance them and see if that improves things? It isn't a car/suspension problem because the other set of wheels I have on there are fine and I have been driving the Miata every day since then.
One possible explanation I've heard was that they are fairly heavy tires and when they get like this, it affects the balance while not under any load and it is completely normal. It just doesn't feel "normal" to me.
FWIW, I'm probably not buying another set of those tires even if they are the "ringer" street tire because the 205/50/15 Kumho 711's that I ran on Sunday stuck as well as the Azenis and seemed to take track abuse more gracefully (and are cheaper).
TIA,
--Ashraf
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