Three times the Avon at Spa 24 Hours

Avon has announced that three cars will race on its tyres in this year’s Spa 24 Hours, tripling the brand’s presence. One of three McLaren MP4-12C GT3 race cars will compete on the manufacturer’s tyres, as well as an independent Aston Martin DBRS9 and a Mercedes SLS. Considering its heritage as a motorsport brand, it comes as something of a surprise that last year’s Spa 24 Hours was its debut. Then, the Trackspeed Racing Porsche 997 RSR entry suffered mechanical problems after a competitive start, finishing in eleventh place. This year Avon hopes to prove the ability of its rubber over the entire duration.

Avon Tyres motorsport sales manager, Brian Davies, said: “Since introducing our new ‘clean oils’ GT tyre last year, more and more teams have been looking towards Avon as a competitive option for races such as the Spa 24 Hours. Hopefully, this year, we’ll be able to show our performance over the full course of the race and that will help us to expand and run more cars in 2012.”

The Ecurie Ecosse team will run the Aston Martin DBRS9 that Beechdean Motorsport has previously campaigned in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship. Another British GT regular, Team Preci-Spark, plans to race with a Mercedes AMG SLS similar to the one they have used in the domestic championship since the start of the year.

After taking pole position on Avons earlier in the month at Spa during its competitive debut in the British GT Championship, McLaren GT has chosen to stick with the Melksham-made tyre for one of its three MP4-12C GT3 race cars for the 24 hour race.

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