Hankook Competition Australia Makes Strong Motorsport Debut

In its motorsport debut, Hankook Competition Australia has claimed a wholly respectable outright fifth place and third place in its class at the Bathurst 12 Hour production car race, held at the Mount Panorama circuit in New South Wales. The Hankook team competed in a newly built Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X fitted with its Ventus TD (Z221) tyres – a road legal R-Spec tyre – and the tyre maker said it used the event as an extended test to better understand the new tyre and how it would perform on one of the world’s most unique and demanding race circuits.

The team started the day’s racing at 16th place and progressively edged its way towards the front of the field, an achievement drivers Peter Conroy, Mark Brame and Anthony Robson note was aided by the Ventus TD tyres’ performance, particularly in the wet. “The tyre allowed us to maintain top ten pace during the periods of heavy rain that punctuated much of the race,” said Conroy. “The strong durability of the Ventus TD also allowed the Hankook team to make less tyre stops than originally planned – another factor that assisted our progress in the latter part of the race.

“Finishing fifth and third in Class A was not something we imagined possible at the start of the day, but through solid team work, good driving and a little luck, we brought home a result that was well deserved and proves that Hankook is on the right track with its tyre development,” he added.

Hankook Tyre Australia’s marketing and PR manager, Jose Angeles, said fifth outright on debut at Bathurst was a great result: “The team stuck to their strategy and it paid off, which is great on a track as notorious as Mount Panorama. We gained valuable tyre data across the weekend and we collected a lot more information than if it had remained dry on all three days. Our engineers will take what we have learned and use it to further develop our motorsport and road tyres.”