Dmack launches two new WRC tyres at Monte Carlo

Dmack Tyres will introduce two new tyres for its second season in the FIA World Rally Championship at next week’s series opener, Rallye Monte Carlo, which returns to WRC after a few years away. The tyre brand says it will approach the 2012 season “with a sense of optimism and confidence” after Ott Tanak achieved a top-six performance on the series-closing Rally GB using its tyres; Dmack says 2011 was largely “a development year”, and has now developed two new asphalt tyres specifically to cope with the demands of a rally steeped in motorsport heritage.

Dick Cormack, Dmack Tyres motorsport director, said: “We are keen to build on the success of last season and have worked hard to develop and test our full range of WRC tyres for this year. Monte Carlo will certainly be a challenge – it’s the first time we will have competed there and we will be introducing two new tyres. Our focus for this year is still to offer competitors a high performance product at an affordable price and we will continue to work hard throughout the season to further develop and fine-tune our tyres.”

The DMT-ICE is an 18” studded asphalt winter tyre with an open tread pattern to help provide improved grip on snow and ice. Its 220 studs each have a 2mm protrusion. The second addition to the range is an extra soft DMT-RC asphalt tyre, required to cope with the cooler temperatures expected on the event.

Dmack says the varying road and weather conditions across the five-day event provide a challenge for tyre manufacturers as priority competitors will have the choice of five different tyres. The winter tyre is available in studded and unstudded form while varying amounts of extra soft, soft and hard compounds of asphalt tyre will be on hand.

Dmack believes Monte Carlo is one of the few across the entire championship where tyre choice can prove decisive to victory. With varying road conditions across a loop of stages, and even in one stage itself, tyre choice is usually a compromise rather than a defined decision.
 
Rallye Monte Carlo’s five-day itinerary sees the rally start in Valence, southern France, on Wednesday, 18 January with the event’s longest stage – Le Moulinon – Antraigues at 36.87km. The event takes in three days of action centred around the city before crews head south to Monaco on Friday, 20 January. Saturday is the only day of full rally action based around Monaco with crews returning to the Service Park at the iconic harbour. Sunday’s short final day will see crews tackle just one stage, the Power Stage, before crossing the finish ramp in Monaco.

Related news:

• DMACK tyres face mixed surface challenge in WRC Spain
• Quality not quantity – Fewer tyres for WRC and WTCC in 2012
• Michelin Latitude Cross a “perfect match” in WRC debut
• Dmack Tyres celebrates PWRC victory in World Rally debut
• Dmack Completes WRC Testing and Releases Range Information
• Chinese-made Dmack Tyres to Join Michelin in WRC