MOTORSPORT
Team Yokohama, the Yokohama Rubber racing team, will once again enter an electric vehicle in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb event. This year the event will take place on Sunday, June 27, and the Yokohama crew is referring to it as the “Team Yokohama EV Challenge”. The company’s entry into the hill climb, or “Challenge”, is viewed by Yokohama Rubber as part of its efforts to meet its environmental responsibilities.
While Ian Hutchinson took the plaudits for an unprecedented five wins on the Isle of Man, Pirelli says Conor Cummins was denied victory by a mechanical fault, which wiped out a 23 second lead in the Superbike TT. Riding on Pirelli tyres, Manxman Conor logged a fastest ever lap in the Superbike race with a devastating 131.511mph average speed, attained unusually on his opening out lap. Fellow Pirelli pilot Guy Martin fell foul of a new pit lane speed limit when lying third, while last year’s 131mph practice man Cameron Donald signalled his return from injury with a battling podium.
The Isle of Man’s low emissions TT Zero race – for electric motorbikes – saw the majority of riders choose to use Pirelli’s Diablo Superbike ‘slick’ race tyres, with machines shod with the Italian manufacturer’s rubber taking all three podium places. The MotoCzysz machine swept to a dominant win over the testing 37-mile Mountain course at the hands of pilot Mark Miller, travelling at an average speed of 96.82mph. The machine hit 135mph at the Sulby Speed Trap and finished the race in 23 minutes 22 seconds. Pirelli says the Diablo tyre’s low rolling resistance was “essential in this power sapping electric race”.
Round five of the 2010 MotoGP Championship will be hosted for the first time since 1986 at Silverstone when the British Grand Prix takes place this weekend. Bridgestone, the sole tyre supplier for MotoGP, will bring its medium and hard slick compounds to the race, with the hard asymmetric rear tyre available.
The Isle of Man TT saw a first this weekend as Ian Hutchinson completed the first clean sweep of five out of five wins at the festival in its hundred-plus year history. The Senior TT saw Hutchinson take the lead after a gruelling few hours during a stopped race, claiming victory with Ryan Farquhar in second place, both of whom used Dunlop’s D211GP tyres.
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button completed a McLaren one-two at the Canadian Grand Prix, as tyre strategy took centre stage. Hamilton successfully deployed a super soft-medium-medium tyre strategy in Montreal. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished third.
Michelin is hoping to walk away with its 13th consecutive win at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. To achieve this, the tyre maker says its engineers, chemists, developers and technicians have prepared a new line-up of even more durable tyres. Working with its partners, Michelin has focused on increasing tyre life without sacrificing performance in other areas. This year the company’s stated goal at the 24 hour race is to quadruple the length of each stint for prototypes and to double them for GT cars.
Dunlop tyres have supported Ian Hutchinson in completing his fourth victory at the Isle of Man TT, winning the Supersport Race 2. With this win, Hutchinson equals Phillip McCallen’s 1996 record of four wins in a week, with one race still to take place. Michael Dunlop claimed second place and Keith Amor in third, making Dunlop the tyre brand of choice for all three podium places in the race. Dunlop (the rider) also set a new lap record for the Supersport at 127.836mph.
The new Ma5da MX5 Cup started on 24 April at Snetterton and continues at Rockingham, Brands Hatch and Croft during the season, with a “Winter Championship to take place at Donnington and Brands Hatch in October and November – and Taiwanese manufacturer Federal has announced that it will supply its 595 RS-R sport competition line as the official tyre of the new series throughout the year.
Having begun on Saturday, the 2010 Isle of Man TT’s first three races have been won on Dunlop tyres, with six of the nine available podium places taken by riders using the manufacturer’s rubber. Saturday saw the first of the two Superbike races, with Iain Hutchinson finishing first and company namesake Michael Dunlop finishing in second on Dunlop’s Ntec slick tyres. This was followed on Monday by the first of the two Supersport races, won by Hutchinson and Dunlop coming in third. The Superstock 1000cc race saw Hutchinson complete a hat-trick of wins with Ryan Farquhar taking a close second, both riding on Dunlop D211GP’s.
Cheshire’s Oulton Park was the latest venue for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, hosting around 35,000 racing fans. Among those fans were more than 25 of the North West region’s top tyre experts, attending the Dunlop BTCC Masterclass; an exclusive course for technicians run by the same Senior Engineers that service the Dunlop tyres for BTCC stars such as Jason Plato and Matt Neal.
Isn’t the internet wonderful? Not only has it given us the opportunity to find love, do our shopping and watch endless hours of video from the comfort of our own homes, thanks to Michelin and French motoring association Automobile Club de l’Ouest we can now participate in one of the world’s most celebrated motorsport events without donning a racing suit or even demonstrating exceptional driving talent.
At this year’s Le Mans 24 hour race Dunlop will be using a new wet tyre designed to “improve grip and driver feedback.” The latest Dunlop tyre will be used in the top class of the event, the LMP1 Le Mans Prototype category, and features Dunlop’s both a new compound technology and a new tread pattern that the company reports has been successfully tested in recent events.
According to the company, this new tread pattern (which will be used on all Dunlop Le Mans wet weather tyres) features design technology that has also inspired Dunlop’s latest high performance road tyres. Like the recently launched Dunlop SP QuattroMaxx road tyre, the new Dunlop TF23 wet race tyre features different zones in the tread pattern to maximise the grip and driver feedback in changeable conditions and under different loads.
Cooper Avon’s Reifen 2010 location next to the main entrance to Hall Three has helped give the company access to attendees making “good genuine enquiries,” according to European marketing communications manager, Sarah McRoberts. She said Cooper has enjoyed “easy access” to both developed and emerging markets, with visitors from “Eastern Europe, India, China and the Middle East” taking time to speak with the company. Therefore Cooper Avon sees Reifen as a “truly international fair” for the industry, yielding enough business opportunities to make it the “only real” European tyre focused event it attends.
As an official sponsor of the 2010 World Cup, Continental AG is not missing a trick when it comes to exposure. On 1 June, less than two weeks before the world’s highest profile footballing tournament kicks off, the automotive supplier has equipped all 32 team buses with its HSR 1 premium bus tyres.
According to the company, the HSR 1 was designed especially for use on motorways and regional transport – perfect for shuttling players from game to game, they say: “Continental is therefore making a major contribution to the safety of the world’s best footballers because the tyres are the only connection with the road and have a contact patch that is just the size of a postcard,” said spokesman Alexander Lührs.
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