Nothing gives Steve Disney refuge from the often-frenzied world of selling tires quite like strapping on a pair of headphones, kicking back and grooving to one of the 500-plus LPs that he's spent more than three decades collecting. "If I wasn't in the tire business, I'd own a record store," says the incoming Tire Association of North America (TANA) president.

The International Tire & Rubber Association (ITRA) is clearly an organization in transition. The group will experience a major personnel shift at the end of the year when longtime Executive Director Marvin Bozarth steps down. It has postponed its next World ITRA Expo convention and trade show until 2003 in favor of hosting a series of regional events starting next year. And the association faces the challenge of meeting the needs of its members in ever-changing markets.

Have you ever felt a sudden wave of relaxation on a trip to a national grocery or department store chain? Could it be the soft music they play? Yes. Could it be the mood-enhancing lighting that filters out the higher frequencies in the visible light spectrum? Yes. Is it the cascading effect of blues and purples from these lights that reduce the rate at which your eyes blink? Yes again.

Apathy is not a Jim Oostdyk characteristic. Nineteen weekends a year, the owner of OK Auto 4WD & Tire in Stewartsville, N.J., finds himself immersed in promoting his tire dealership.

The name that's known is Larry Morgan: Our Tire Dealer of the Year has a tried-and-true blueprint for building tire store chains

and banks on suspension work

It's been an action-packed 12 months for North America's largest independent tire dealerships and distribution groups as they continue to grapple for market dominance. Sales, acquisitions, openings and closings -- both large and small -- have dramatically rearranged the face of the industry.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s unveiling of the new Dunlop SP Sport A2 high performance tire last month was more than a simple tire introduction, according to company officials. "This is the first salvo in what will be a significant cumulative building of the Dunlop brand," says Derek Jenner, Goodyear Dunlop Tires North America Ltd. vice president of sales and marketing (in photo).

he Big Three

Members of the Flat Earth Society would probably deny membership to Richard Steinke, CEO of Amerityre Corp. But he couldn't care less. A revolutionary by his own definition, Steinke's convictions are locked into an air/no air polyurethane prototype tire.