Avon will begin its eighth successive year as sole tyre supplier to the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Oulton Park on Easter weekend. Launched on the evening of 7 March in London, the 2013 season features grids boosted by a number of European entries.
Italian racing team AF Corse claimed its second Gulf 12 Hours win on Avon tyres in 2012 at the Yas Marina Circuit last week, in the final race of the Cooper brand’s 2012 motorsport season. The AF Corse team, which recently announced its entry to the Avon Tyres British GT Championship in 2013, took the spoils by the excitingly small margin of 2.6 seconds in the first Gulf 12 Hours Race, held at the Herman Tilke-designed circuit back in January. Victory in the second event of the year was decidedly more convincing, with the lead AF Corse Ferrari crossing the line nearly half a minute clear of the rest of the field in its second visit to the Emirati capital.
An unusual thing happened in the 2012 Avon Tyres British GT; the Motorbase pairing of Michael Caine and Daniele Perfetti that prevailed claimed the GT3 title at Donington Park despite not having won a race all season. The duo lined up eighth on the grid for the season finale of a remarkably close British GT Championship, but following an electrifying start to an action-packed race, a number of changes at the front of the pack included the pairing, which crossed the line in fourth place. Title sponsor Avon Tyres said the team had been rewarded for its consistency and clean racing; the duo stayed out of trouble to bring the Porsche 997 GT3-R home and clinch the title by 3.5 points, in dramatic fashion.
Avon Tyres British GT Championship and British Endurance Championship driver George Murrells has agreed to feature automotive industry charity BEN’s logo on his Ginetta G55 GT3 supercar. Murrells will also undertake further fundraising activities to support and promote BEN, including running in the Silverstone Half Marathon on 10 March, 2013.
The Avon Tyres British GT Championship begins at Oulton Park, Cheshire on Easter weekend. The series has attracted a field of 23 cars from 13 different manufacturers for the 2012 season – Avon’s seventh as sole tyre supplier and title sponsor. Paul Coates, general manager for Avon Tyres Motorsport, says: “The challenge of producing such a wide range of tyres and sizes for so many different cars that run to a similar pace is one that we have embraced, and we have produced a tyre that is popular with teams and drivers.”
Following on the heels of news that Avon Tyres will supply tyres to the European and Dutch GT4 series, the British-based Cooper Tire brand has been confirmed as official tyre supplier to the Italian GT and Italian Sportscar Championships for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe’s Avon Tyres will be the official tyre supplier to the European GT4 Cup and Dutch GT4 Championship for the next three years. Avon has ramped up its GT tyre products since its introduction into the British GT Championship in 2006, and the brand’s representatives say the latest contract shows its boosted reputation as a “world class supplier” of the product. All tyres for both championships will be manufactured in the UK at Avon Tyres Motorsport’s headquarters in Melksham, Wiltshire.
Avon Tyres has signed up as title sponsor to the MSA British Hillclimb Championship, which will duly be known as the Avon Tyres MSA British Hillclimb Championship. The series, which got underway on 4 February at Leicestershire Circuit, is organised by the BARC and includes rounds at leading UK hillclimb venues, as well as Jersey and Guernsey.
The Avon brand, manufactured by Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe Ltd, has unveiled the fourth generation of its GT racing tyre since it took over as sole supplier and title sponsor of the series in 2006. Avon Tyres Motorsport technical manager, Mike Lynch, believes the new tyre will be around a second quicker than its predecessor around most circuits on the British GT calendar but, importantly, will also be durable enough for teams to use strategies demanding longer stints.
Avon Tyres Motorsport has supplied tyres to the inaugural Gulf 12 Hours event in Abu Dhabi on 20 January. The event was held at the Yas Marina Grand Prix circuit, featuring GT3 cars and CN2-class sports prototypes competing in a two six-hour races, the first of which took place in the heat of the day, the second under floodlights in the evening.
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.
Today was the joint launch day for Cooper Avon’s biggest UK motorsport series – the British Formula Three, supplied in its 60th season by Cooper Tires, and the British GT, once again supplied by Avon Tyres, which announced this week that it had signed up to the championship until “at least 2014” – the same period for which Cooper is signed up with F3. Hosted at Silverstone, the event marks a special occasion for Cooper Avon in British F3, as this season marks the 30th anniversary of its first association with the championship, when Avon supplied the tyres to such giants of motor racing as then-future Formula One champions Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Jenson Button. Cooper took over the tyre supply to the series in 2008, though the tyres are still manufactured at Melksham, Wiltshire – the company’s European motorsport base.
Avon Tyres will supply race tyres to the Chevron GR8 Championship, the brand has announced. The championship is a one-make series featuring 260bhp cars built by the Cheshire-based sportscar manufacturer. Helen Bashford-Malkie, managing director of Chevron Racing Cars, said: “We chose Avon because they offered the best combination of performance and value, which is what our competitors are looking for from both Chevron and our suppliers.
Cooper Tire will continue as the official control tyre supplier and title sponsor of the prestigious British F3 International Series until at least the end of the 2014 season. Cooper took over the supply and sponsorship of British F3 in 2009 from its Avon Tyres brand, which had previously been sole supplier to the series for 27 years, and now supplies the British GT Championship. The Cooper Tire British F3 International Series is widely acknowledged as one of the toughest domestic single-seater championships in the world and is a recognised route to the pinnacle of the sport for aspiring Formula 1 drivers, having produced 2009 FIA F1 World champion Jenson Button, and current F1 drivers Mark Webber, Rubens Barrichello, 2008 British F3 champion Jaime Algersuari, and newly signed Sauber driver and 2007 National Class champion Sergio Perez.
Since Avon Tyres began supplying control tyres to the British GT Championship in 2006 drivers have clocked up some 200,000 racing miles on its products. Now they’ll have the chance to add a few more miles to the tally following the signing of an agreement to extend the tyre maker’s title sponsorship and control tyre supply until the end of the 2014 season. Avon’s first outing under the new agreement will be at Oulton Park on April 23 to 25 next year.
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