Hey Guys, I struggled with whether or not to post this but in the end I'd hate to see what happened to me happen to another track junkie. I had a great used tire guy for years (Greg D) but he decided he's done with used race rubber so I called John Berget in January after finding his website. He said he had the tires I wanted in stock and the set would be ~$450.00 shipped. Okay cool, visa card and we're waiting on tires. I received two good condition front tires but the rears were a problem. One was an A6 compound (instead of the R6s I asked for) and the other tire was an 8 YEAR OLD R6. I called him and he said that he thought I was in a hurry for tires so he sent me what he had in stock. I told him that running one A6 and one 8 year old R6 on the track was not safe and definitely not going to happen. He said again that he thought I was in a hurry and that I could "doctor" them and run them. Again, definitely not happening (not sure how you'd "doctor" them), also not sure why he'd even have an 8 year old tire. So two weeks later I received one R6 in decent shape and here we are in the middle of March and I still don't have a full set of tires. HERE'S WHY I'M POSTING: I called this guy today and he lost his sh*t on me. Verbally abusive and extremely rude. He said he was losing money on me and sending me free tires. I explained to him that I still did not have a set of tires that I can use! He hung up on me.

So there you go, just wanted to make some fellow road racers aware. If you've had a good experience with him, that's great. If he's your best friend, that's great too. I'm not attacking his character, just saying anyone with racing experience knows not to do what he was advising (running different compounds and one 8 year old tire) and no one wants to wait two months for tires! I still have not disputed the charges on my Visa so I think I have displayed ample patience with this guy.

Luckily my NT01s are still going strong so I have not missed any track days because of him.

 

Want a good deal on R tires? Go to Hoosier tire and check out their discontinued section. I got a set of 2013 Continental EC-DR 275-40R17s for $110 each. New. Zero miles. No BS. And they have many other sizes available.

 

Man what a deal, I will check it out. Thanks for the tip.

 

no one is perfect, but ive bought half a dozen sets of tires off him over the years, and hes never been anything but a pleasure to work with. he always sends me the best he has, and even threw in a free tire on the last shipment. many people ive met at track days have nothing but good things to say about him, so i certainly wouldnt write him off immediately for everyone.

 

I agree, we all make mistakes but this goes a bit beyond. Set aside the long wait, the mismatched compounds, the one ancient tire, the rude conversation and you still have the unbelievably bad advice. Telling someone to "doctor" that mismatched set and run them will get them hurt or killed at a track. If he gives that advice to a newbie it just may happen. Luckily Dot-Rs have date codes on them, slicks don't. I've purchased countless sets of used slicks and Dot-Rs over the last 20 years, this is the first time I've had a problem with a seller.