Goodyear supports 2022 FIA European Truck Racing Championship

How involvement in the top level of European truck racing is helping in the tyre manufacturer’s sustainability drive

Goodyear is a long-term headline supporter and tyre supplier of one the most heavyweight forms of motorsport: truck racing. The tyre manufacturer says supplying the tyres on which the series competes demonstrates the performance, durability and sustainability of its truck tyre technology. The 2022 Goodyear FIA European Truck Racing Championship season ended in Jarama, Spain on 2 October, the last of eight rounds, with Norbert Kiss winning his fourth title. Teo Calvet fending off close competition to win the Goodyear FIA ETRC Promoter’s Cup.

For Goodyear, competing in front of 100,000 fans at the Nürburgring in July was a highlight of the ETRC season. The exciting races at Le Mans – a circuit at which Goodyear has an illustrious history in endurance car racing, having won 14 24-hour races there – attended by another 70,000 spectators were another. 24 drivers representing four manufacturer teams competed in the 2022 edition of the ETRC.

Goodyear’s ETRC tyres are built using comparable carcass to commercial truck tyres, the tread and tread compound are modified to provide the needed grip on wet and dry conditions and to help deal with the heat generated by the drivers pushing the 5.3-tonne trucks to the limit at over 160 km/h. Goodyear adds that its partnership with the ETRC has sustainability at its core.

The championship also visited Le Mans, a circuit close to Goodyear’s heart (Photo: Goodyear)

Tyres the centre of Goodyear FIA ETRC’s sustainability push

Goodyear’s commitment to the championship means it will continue to work closely with the ETRA (European Truck Racing Association) and the FIA to introduce new technologies and innovations in the years to come to make further steps forward in sustainability. It says these new innovations will help make the championship competitive, exciting and sustainable.

The championship is committed to helping accelerate the transition to a sustainable future and has committed to reaching net zero by 2038 at the latest, a target outlined in the Paris Agreement. In transport, tyres play a crucial role in lowering overall emissions with technology that lowers rolling resistance and methods of manufacturing that are kind to the environment.

The championship already made the shift to fully sustainable HVO biodiesel in 2021, and Goodyear’s racing tyres are given an extended life through retreading, an identical service that is available to Goodyear’s commercial vehicle tyre customers across Europe. This means that the tyres used in the Goodyear FIA ETRC are then retreaded into standard on-road products that can be used by transportation fleets.

Maciej Szymanski, marketing director for commercial Europe, Goodyear said: “From a Goodyear perspective, there are many parallels between the work that goes into creating the ultimate truck racing tyre and a tyre that delivers for fleet operators around Europe. The two worlds are dedicated to maximising results and extracting the most performance and efficiency from its vehicles. In this regard, we couldn’t be happier with the way these two areas of the Goodyear business support each other.”

“Goodyear and the ETRC share the same goal, which is to drive forward more sustainable solutions in the road haulage industry,” said ETRA managing director Georg Fuchs. “The series provides the perfect test lab for innovation and over the last few years we have already been able to provide valuable findings for Goodyear and their road relevant developments. The introduction of the retreading program is the next step towards a more sustainable future, and we are proud, that Goodyear road tyres will carry a bit of the truck racing DNA in them.”

Davide Califano, head of brand and product marketing for commercial Europe, Goodyear, explains the value of the partnership: “The activity we do on-track gives us an important advantage when it comes to researching and developing new specifications of truck tyres. Using Goodyear FIA ETRC as a test bed has been invaluable to our development program. The insights we are able to discover allow us to work on a better product for both the track and the road.”