About HOOSIER CUSTOM MANUFACTURING

"Tires Designed for Champions"

It all began back in the early 50's when Robert "Bob" Newton, along with his supportive wife Joyce, began a successful racing career on the small asphalt tracks of northern Indiana. Bob, like many of his fellow drivers, was not satisfied with driving on street tires with their limited sizing options and uniformly hard tread compounds. And he had a vision to produce his own tires specifically designed for racing.

So, in 1957, Bob and Joyce decided to begin producing their own race tires by re-treading street tires with softer compounds. The "Hoosier" name was chosen for their company to reflect the origin of Bob's racing roots on the short tracks of the Midwest. The company color of purple came from Bob's #4 race car.

As the fledgling company began to master the available tire-making technologies, they set their sights on producing their first race tire specifically designed for racing. And so, in 1962, Bob Newton did just that through an arrangement with the Mohawk Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio.  

Then, late in 1978, the Newtons were delivered news that Mohawk was closing the Akron plant and, as a result, was about to end their ability to produce new race tires. Faced with this potentially devastating news, Bob and Joyce made a decision that has changed the face of racing forever. They mortgaged their home and Hoosier Tire to raise the capital needed to build the world's first and only factory solely devoted to the production of racing tires. Located in Plymouth, Indiana, just down the road from the corporate office in Lakeville, the factory began production in 1979.

During the early years, the secret rubber formulas required to produce Hoosier tires were still being produced by outside suppliers. Finally, in 1985, as the business continued to grow, the Newtons were determined to eliminate the need to rely on outside rubber suppliers by developing the company's own in-house rubber production capabilities. They obtained financing for the first million dollar mixing plant to produce rubber compounds strictly for racing tires.

In 1991, Bob took his vision of complete in-house control of the manufacturing processes needed to produce Hoosier tires one step further. The company purchased a multi-million dollar, one-of-a-kind, new four-roll "Z" calender to go into an equally new state-of-the-art calendering facility next to the existing mixing plant. This innovation allowed Hoosier to apply rubber directly onto its own specially woven fabrics while maintaining the very tight tolerances that their engineers needed to build tires that would perform under the extreme speeds and high heat of racing.

During the fall of 2012, Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. completed a multi-million dollar expansion to our existing rubber mixing facility and has ramped up rubber production at our Plymouth, Indiana location. This expansion to our rubber mixing facility is designed to not only cover all of Hoosier’s production needs for the present and foreseeable future, but we’ve also planned far into the future by building in substantial capacity that will benefit other companies rubber mixing needs as well. Hoosier Racing Tire has entered the Custom Mixing business.

With more than 50 years in the race tire business, Hoosier has established itself as a world leader. During that time, we’ve gathered a dedicated and talented group of people that routinely think ‘outside the box’ to resolve processing issues that are unique to the manufacture of racing tires, materials, and racing compounds. We believe that our rubber mixing services, combined with our existing state-of the-art 4 roll textile calendering system, could be a great benefit to our prospective customers. We also provide custom product engineering, testing services, compound formulation, and specialty tire manufacturing services that could greatly benefit our customer’s product development efforts.

Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. offers their customers a complete staff of rubber and tire professionals, along with highly specialized equipment designed to test and process the various materials used in the manufacturing of high performance race tires. Whether it is the development of specialty tires, custom calendering of various textile materials, or the production and testing of other rubber products, Hoosier would like to discuss with you how we can help your business succeed. For more information, please contact Jerry Mikesell at 574-784-3409, by email at jmikesell@hoosiertire.com.

Hoosier custom racing tire.

Engineering racing tires

Hoosier Racing manufactures tires.

Specialty racing tires from Hoosier Custom Manufacturing

Custom racing tire from Hoosier Custom Manufacturing