when I first got into late models, there was a lot of complaining as most tracks had changed from the 13" wide tires to an 11" wide tire. The 13" gumballs were used by the wealthy teams who could afford a new set every week or two. (try and find a picture of Earl Ross' 1969 Chevelle and it looks like a steamroller) I think it made some teams lazy as the wide sticky tires overcompensated for a poor suspension set up. 11" now seems universal on super lates &  even on WOO super lates. As the late models went to a sportsman type car over the years, we've seen the class go to narrower rubber. Of course, this class started as a challenger division or super street stock (to use Sunset's terminology)
20 years ago and I think at that time, many of the tracks were using d.o.t. legal street tires to keep costs down.
The only thing I regret, and I was thinking about this at the Kawartha ACT race, is that the cars look great except when looking at them from the front (and those skinny tires). Guess I've been going to too many modified races lately where wide rubber rules-LOL

Flamboro either 1973  or 1974 was the final year of the big tire (17.50) Firestones mounted on bolt together magnesium rims as seen on the Lorne Wise Cuda .

As you can see having a yard of rubber on the track didn't stop them from wrecking . The magnesium rims would burst into flames when they scraped them across the Armco guard rails , they banned them at the end of the 73 /74 season as well .

I remember Jack Cook driving the Lorne Wise car at Cayuga on Fridays in 71 or 72 I think. Do you remember if Cayuga had gone to an 11" wide tire at that time as part of that ERCA afiliation with Holland and Perry??? Seems they ran a tri track deal at that time.