Llandrindod Wells-based Craig Middleton produced a polished performance to take third place on the final round of the MSA National Gravel Rally Championship. More importantly, on the Bulldog Rally Middleton has done enough to secure his first major championship title alongside his three National Junior titles.
New regulations aimed at maintaining competition between tyre manufacturers in the MotoGP World Championship have received the backing of Michelin. The rules, concerning tyres and testing, come into effect on January 1 2007 and the tyre regulations were formulated following discussions among the three tyre manufacturers involved in MotoGP.
Alcoa Wheel Products is a finalist in the 2007 Automotive News PACE Award competition. The 13th annual PACE (Premier Automotive Suppliers’ Contribution to Excellence) Award is presented by Microsoft, SAP, Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC Inc.) and Automotive News.
Back in April, Bridgestone Firestone North America gave notice that the Dayton plant in Oklahoma City would be closed down by the end of the year. The first tranche of layoffs has begun, with around 400 of the 1,400-strong workforce being told that they will lose their jobs by the end of this month.
Maha, a world-leader in the garage equipment sector, has confirmed it is set to use January’s Aftermarket Show as a platform for showcasing the latest product in its Dynamometer range. The event will be held at the NEC in Birmingham from 11-14 January. The company, specialists in the manufacture and supply of Brake Testing Equipment, Vehicle Lifts, and Chassis Dynamometers, is returning to the show after enjoying considerable success at the event earlier this year.
A car enthusiast enjoyed a unique taste of life in the fast lane, after taking an exclusive tour of the Williams F1 factory as a guest of Bridgestone. Robert Newton was given open access to the F1 team’s state-of-the-art Grove head office as the winner of a Tyres & Accessories competition to promote the Firestone brand. The trip enabled him to indulge his passion for fast cars and pick up some useful tips for one of his hobbies-cum-business ventures – building rally cars.
Kwik-Fit Fleet has won a two-year sole supply contract with Pendragon Group to supply fast-fit and tyre management services to the three contract hire and fleet management companies within the organisation. The new deal, which Kwik-Fit Fleet won after fighting off competition in a competitive tender, means Britain’s largest independent fast-fit company will supply services to the 25,178 vehicles operated by Pendragon Contracts, Bramall Contracts and Vardy Contract Motoring.
(Akron/Tire Review) The downturn in the North American tyre industry has begun taking its toll on suppliers. Performance Fibers, a leading supplier of polyester fibres for tyres, is idling its polyester fibre production at its Scottsboro, Alabama, facility. The company said the move was “due to slowing demand in North America caused by U.S. tyre manufacturing cutbacks, high raw material costs and other factors.”
In June, as part of Tyres & Accessories’ 60th anniversary celebrations, we ran a competition giving readers the chance to win one of two Blaupunkt TravelPilot Lucca satellite navigation units. Having counted all the entries, checked all the answers and contacted the winners, Tyres & Accessories is pleased to announce that Mike Garwood of National Tyres and Autocare and James E Gilmore of Cooper Tires have each won the star prize.
T&A visited Mike Garwood at National’s Stockport office to present the prize. Garwood, who currently works as a project manager for the well known retail chain, is celebrated 30 years in the tyre business in September, so the prize could not have come at a better time.
Seven months after officially starting the project construction workers building Cooper/Kenda’s joint venture manufacturing plant have almost finished. The 800,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is situated in an industrial park in Kunshan, a suburb west of Shanghai. This first phase of the project is expected to be completed by December.
If you are a Gislaved Tyre dealer, you could be watching all your favourite films anytime, anywhere by the end of the year. Gislaved Tyres has launched a promotion for all its dealers, giving the chance for up to five staff to win a portable DVD player as a reward for increasing tyre sales. The competition will run throughout the final quarter of 2006 and winners will be able to claim their prizes before Christmas.
Viking Tyres has launched an exclusive promotion for all its dealers, with the chance for up to five staff at the winning dealership to win a fantastic Apple Ipod as a reward for Viking Tyre sales. The promotion will run during the final quarter of 2006 enabling the winners to claim their prizes before Christmas.
Golf enthusiasts at Bridgestone UK say they will have one eye on the lush fairways of Ohio this week when leading global stars contest the World Golf Championships. A strong field at the Bridgestone Invitational event, which tees off at the Firestone Country Club in Akron on Thursday (24 August), includes Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Geoff Ogilvy, Luke Donald and Paul Casey. As well as striving to emulate last year’s winner Tiger Woods, many of the American and European participants will also be looking to score valuable ranking points for a starting place in next month’s Ryder Cup.
A team of four students from Anglia Ruskin University beat nine other entries on 31 July to be declared the champion of i10 Innovators: The Business Plan Competition with a plan for a self powering tyre pressure monitoring system TPMS. Andrew Lyall, Carine Kruger, David Boardman and the absent Jan Vondras (currently working in America) made up the winning ‘Innoflate’ team. The former students met while completing their MBAs at the university in Cambridge. Their idea is to produce an innovative tyre pressure monitor called ‘AirCzecher’, which is named for the Czech-born Jan Vondras who had the initial idea.
Michelin has been awarded 3rd Prize in an annual survey of shareholder services of the companies comprising the CAC 40 index. The 2006 survey carried out by “Journal des Finances” gave Total and Société Générale 1st and 2nd prize respectively. This third annual survey found that 67.5 per cent of the forty companies in the CAC 40, provide a quality, shareholder-driven service.
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