FIM World Endurance Win a “Fantastic Achievement” – Dunlop

When the Dunlop shod Suzuki Endurance Racing Team took the chequered flag at the 8 Hours of Doha on November 14, the result ensured not only race victory but also victory in the whole 2010 FIM World Endurance Championship. Half of the season’s top-ten ranked bikes rode on Dunlop, and the tyre maker points out that this championship victory marks the eighth occasion in which Dunlop has clinched the world title in the last ten years.

The Suzuki team took the title by a five point margin over their closest rivals, triumphing at the end of a challenging season which included a no-score at Le Mans in France and no participation in the third round at Suzuka in Japan. Adding to their Doha victory were wins at The 8 Hours of Albacete in Spain and The 24 Hours Bol d’Or in France.

Dunlop states that its success holds particular significance for it as the World Endurance Championship remains the only international motorcycle road racing series with open tyre competition. “This is a fantastic achievement for us,” said Dunlop motorsport manager Stephen Male. “The FIM World Endurance series represents one of the toughest challenges in racing; our trackside customers demand tyres that work day or night, hot or cold, whether it’s wet or dry. The length of the races means the tyres also need greater durability than traditional ‘sprint’ race tyres, in turn helping us to develop high performance road tyres in line with our race-to-road philosophy.”

“Taking the title again and seeing no less than five Dunlop shod bikes in the top ten is a just reward for the effort put in by the Dunlop Motorsport Team to keep ahead of the competition and deliver class-leading racing rubber,” said Sharon Antonaros, Dunlop’s European marketing director. “Commercially we are already delivering the pay-off from motorsports to our road riding customers, utilising the race derived NTEC and Multi-Tread (MT) technologies for our SportSmart and GP Racer D211 range of performance tyres.”