endurance racing Archives - Page 12 of 12

Le Mans is Michelin’s ‘Battleground’ – Henry-Biabaud

This weekend the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race takes place at the historic French circuit, and for ‘local’ manufacturer Michelin the event holds particular significance. According to Michelin motorsport director Frédéric Henry-Biabaud, the Le Mans race is Michelin’s “home battlefield” and losing at Le Mans is “out of the question.” But after securing ten consecutive victories, the motorsport director expresses every confidence that Michelin’s winning streak will continue.

It was a very good result for Michelin,” said Henry-Biabaud. “It was also an extremely memorable race thanks to the arrival of Peugeot to compete against Audi.” With the addition of Peugeot, Michelin now supplies more than 60 per cent of the field. “For us, that presented an additional challenge, as we needed to make sure that we supplied those two teams – as well as everybody else – with absolutely equal equipment. It was essential to be completely impartial with everybody.

11th June 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Dunlop Control Tyre for New UK GT Cup Series

Product News

The organisers of the new GT Cup racing series have chosen Dunlop Motorsport as the sole tyre supplier to the inaugural series. The new televised series will consist of eight ‘double-header’ events at the UK’s top circuits, including Silverstone, Donington and Brands Hatch, and will be open to production GT cars such as Ferraris, TVRs and Porsches. Dunlop are a leading supplier to GT racing around the world, having won the GT2 class of the 2007 Le Mans Endurance Series with Virgo Ferrari team. Dunlop tyres are also used in other leading supercar and GT championships such as the International GT Open, Spanish Endurance Championship, Britcar, Dutch Supercar Challenge and Danish Endurance series.

11th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

BBC Top Gear Presenters Race on Dunlop Tyres

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The BBC Top Gear team of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May will make their endurance racing debut this weekend at Silverstone in the annual Britcar 24 Hour race. The team will be joined in their BMW 330Dti race car by the mysterious ‘Stig’ and will be tackling Britain’s biggest race event on Dunlop race tyres, reportedly made at Fort Dunlop in Birmingham. Their attempt at the race, which features a vast array of sportscars from Porsche GT3s, Ferraris and Aston Martins to BMW M3s and Honda Civic Type-Rs, will be the feature of a forthcoming BBC Two programme.

Dunlop are delighted that the team are tackling their first endurance race on their race tyres, according to spokesman James Bailey: “Dunlop has won more Le Mans 24 Hour races than any other tyre manufacturer and are dominating many saloon and sportscar racing championships around the world. No-one knows much about The Stig, but we do now know that when it comes to gripping performance, he chooses Dunlop.”

7th September 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Team Hankook Comes 3rd/4th at Nürburgring 24 Hour Race

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Team “Hankook H&R Special Springs” from Alzen Motorsport, driving a Porsche Cayman-based Racing-Coupé, finished 4th out of 230 cars (157 finishers) at the 24-hour race at Nürburgring (Germany) in front of 200,000 spectators. At the event, a major fixture on the international motor racing calendar and one that is watched closely by the global automotive industry, Hankook Tire hosted more than 200 partners and guests from all over Europe in its lounge. They were welcomed by the Hankook Group’s CTO & CPO, Hwi-Joong Kim. He was accompanied by Hankook’s CMO Hyun-Shick Cho, the CSO & CFO Hyun-Bum Cho, along with the head of the European Hankook operations, Seung-Do Jin, to celebrate the upcoming opening of its new, 500 million euros production facility in Hungary, Hankook’s first in Europe, later this month.

13th June 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Introduces ‘Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge’

Product News

Given the important role played by endurance racing in its competition strategy, Michelin has decided to launch the ‘Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge’. Based on the 2007 Le Mans 24 Hours and the six rounds of the 2007 Le Mans Series, the scheme will see Michelin reward those teams that make the best use of the fuel they consume, expressed as an Energy Performance Index (EPI) calculated after each event.

Prizes will be awarded to the best-performing teams in all four categories (LM P1, LM P2, GT1, GT2). The Energy Performance Index is based on the following parameters:

29th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Dunlop Makes a Splash at Paul Ricard

Product News

Dunlop broke new ground – and shifted plenty of water – at the Paul Ricard circuit near Marseille, France last week, with a first-ever dedicated wet test bringing together top teams from MotoGP, Superbike and Endurance for a two day programme at which multi-compound wet – weather tyres made their track debut.

The tests brought the title-winning French SERT (Suzuki Endurance Racing Team) alongside the Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP team and the Airwaves Ducati British Superbike squad – all lining up for the full spray treatment at the multi-million dollar Paul Ricard HTTT (High Tech Test Track) facility more usually dedicated to F1 and Le Mans race cars.

28th November 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

Dunlop Gears Up For Longest UK Race

Product News

The Britcar 24 Hours is seen by some as the jewel in the UK endurance racing crown. Following the successful inaugural event in 2005, the marathon race returns to Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit from 9-10 September and has attracted a diverse range of cars, and headline sponsorship from Dunlop. With the biggest starting line-up in UK racing, up to 80 cars are expected to take to the grid for the 24 Hour race, including Porsches, Ferraris, BMWs and TVRs.

17th August 2006/by Tyrepress Editors

Dunlop Signs Three-Year Motorsport Deal

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Dunlop Motorsport has confirmed that is has signed a deal with EERC (European Endurance Racing Club). The agreement will see the manufacturer act as sole tyre supplier to the Britcar and Production S1 series including the Willhire 5 HR and Silverstone 24 hour events until 2008. In addition the Birmingham based Motorsport operation is committing to support the championship with team incentives and marketing activities. Dunlop is the sole tyre supplier and has been involved with the championship since its inception.

23rd June 2005/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Names Future Director of Motorsport

Product News

Following the news that Pierre Dupasquier will retire in 2006, Michelin has announced that Frédéric Henry-Biabaud, the current deputy director, will replace Mr Dupasquier at the end of the 2005 season. At the same time the tyre manufacturer gave further details of personnel changes within its motorsport group.

The motorsport group is made up of five departments. The leadership of the group’s rallying, motorcycling, endurance racing and rally raids divisions will remain the same. Michelin’s Formula 1 division, however, will have a new head. Following the departure of Pascal Vasselon, bound for a new position in America, Nick Shorrock will take over responsibility from January 2005. Patrick Cohen will assist him as a technical manager.

Commenting on the recent decisions, Motorsport Director Pierre Dupasquier said: “I am very happy to see that we are putting teams into place early enough to whom I can pass the torch, therefore guaranteeing the quality of service that we owe all our partners and the continuity of Michelin in racing.”

10th December 2004/by Tyrepress Editors

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