MOTORSPORT
Cameron Steele, a long-time Yokohama Tire Corporation-sponsored off-road racer, captured his second consecutive SNORE (Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts) Unlimited Truck Class championship by winning the BMS Rage at the River season finale on December 12-13. Steele and his Desert Assassins team mate Josh Daniel both won their respective classes and finished 1-2 overall among all racers competing in the event.
In only its second weekend racing Pirelli P Zero Racing Slicks, US based tuner GMG Racing posted another win – this time capturing qualifying by nearly three seconds over the next-fastest car, before going on to knock out the competition and the Porsche Owner’s Club Racing Weekend race at Willow Springs Raceway with a ten-second margin. GMG’s Porsche 997 WC Cup car set the fastest time ever in a standard Cup car (non-RS or RSR) with a time of 1:19.7. Driver and GMG co-owner James Sofronas is new to Pirelli Motorsport, but after sweeping the BMW CCA (Car Club of America) Club Race CM Class during the BMWCCA West Coast season finale club race, and following that up with a huge weekend at Willow Springs in his Porsche – Pirelli reports that he is a believer.
Following a year and a half of design and materials and construction development at Fort Dunlop in Birmingham, home to the company’s European Motorsport Operations, Dunlop is ready to debut a new tyre in next year’s British Touring Car Championship – a tyre said to provide greater performance while complying with latest European environmental regulations. The Sport Maxx BTCC will first be used in round two of the 2010 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham, Northamptonshire on April 25 and 25. Meanwhile, recent tests of the new tyre at Snetterton in Norfolk showed it to be faster over a full race distance and also more durable than its predecessor.
Pirelli Tire North America introduced its 2010 specification P Zero Racing Slick at Daytona International Speedway during December tire tests in preparation for January’s Rolex 24 event. The two-day test on December 8 and 9 gave teams and drivers the opportunity to test the new HAOF (highly aromatic oil-free) racing slicks – Grand-Am’s first foray into what Pirelli calls ‘green Performance’.
With three new circuits on the calendar, 2010 promises to be an exciting year for Maxxis in its title-sponsorship of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship. Little Silver near Exeter is the first of the new venues and hosts the season opener at the end of February, while Leicestershire’s Mallory Park will stage a special double-header on March 21, when motocross action will be coupled with a road race. In August the series visits Farleigh Castle in Wiltshire, a circuit that has not been used for around ten years as a Maxxis Championship event.
The November 2009 issue includes our popular annual motorsport review, a fleet business report and a special lifting equipment feature. Subscribers can read online by clicking more.
From 2010 Italian manufacturer GoldenTyre will replace Dunlop as the sole tyre supplier of the FIM SuperMoto World Championship, which has operated under a single tyre policy since 2006. Championship organiser Youthstream states it looks forward to it new partnership with GoldenTyre, which begins in Italy on May 2, at the first of seven Grands Prix during the 2010 FIM SuperMoto World Championship season.
Bridgestone Motorsport reports that motorsport’s finest up-and-coming drivers sampled its Potenza Formula One tyres in the final group test of 2009 at the Jerez racing circuit in southern Spain on 1-3 December. All four compounds of 2009 specification dry tyres were available and used at the test. Twenty drivers drove 2,602 laps over the course of the three days for the nine attending teams. Bridgestone’s intermediate and wet tyres were also used. The test was designed to gather data on the old tyres in preparation for their 2010 development, with teams all running different programmes and heavier cars to simulate extra fuel loads. Jun Matsuzaki, chief engineer at Bridgestone Motorsport stated: “It was good to see so many young drivers here at the same test, and there were more experienced F1 test drivers in action too, so we had a good benchmark. We could see some of these names again in the future and our current F1 drivers will always need to keep looking over their shoulders because of these youngsters.”
When Malcolm Scovell was appointed commercial director at Michelin Tyre Plc earlier this year, his appointment marked a significant change in the company’s management as it followed the almost simultaneous appointment of Bill Schafer as commercial director of Michelin’s UK truck and bus operations in July. Now Scovell’s predecessor (Hervé de Froment) has transferred to take on a new role with Michelin in sunny Spain, Scovell – himself the former managing director of Michelin Nordic – has taken the opportunity to move to warmer (if not drier) climes. In his first full interview since taking over at Campbell Road, Tyres & Accessories asked what he brings to the role and what the market can expect in the next 12 months.
According to Malcolm Scovell, premium brands have managed to maintain their overall market share despite the pressures of the down market. However, it is clear that some have faired better than others. As far as Michelin is concerned this year is said to have been pleasingly stable: “We are confident we have been able to maintain our position…[But] if we hadn’t have taken such a broad approach to the market – fleets, distribution, OE etc – we could have lost ground.”
Continental Tire North America has become tyre supplier for the US based Grand-Am Road Sports Car Challenge Racing series. In a five-year agreement that begins on January 1, Continental takes on the championship’s exclusive tyre supply and title sponsorship. The series will henceforth be known as the “Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge” and will utilise Conti’s newly released ExtremeContact tyre range.
In motorsport, the scrubbing of tyres – running the tyres for a couple of laps and leaving them to cool and cure – is a fairly common practice used to improve dynamic performance, grip, tyre life and lap times. UK firm Tyre Technology Ltd. already supplies machinery that can replicate this process to motorsport teams. For the first time, however, the company is making its Black Frequency system available for rental to any interested party.
Federal Tires has released a new specialty motorsports guide that demonstrates its tyre range in terms of its street, track, and off road applications. The latest catalogue not only showcases the Taiwanese manufacturer’s complete product line; the usage each tyre is best put to is also outlined. Tyres covered in the guide include the Corsa FZ-101 for time trial events and high-level competition use, the semi-slick Corsa FZ-202, Federally G-10 for dry and damp gravel surfaces and the 595 RS-R high performance tyre for time attack, club sprint, lap dash, professional drifting and street legal competition.
Yokohama-supported rally driver Tom Cave has ended his 2009 rally season in 44th place overall, having attained a third in class during the Rally of Great Britain and eighth overall and first in class in the Rally of Scotland. The latter, notes the tyre maker, marked the best result for a Ford in the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge and would have netted him a championship point had the marque been registered for the series.
Dunlop reports that the latest addition to its motorcycle range, the Qualifier II, has won Visordown’s annual winter tyre test. The popular magazine, formerly known as TWO, tested a range of premium tyres in wet and dry conditions to find the best tyre for use during cold, wet winters.
The 2009 MotoGP season was the first for Bridgestone as the series’ Official Tyre Supplier. Looking back on the season in a question and answer session, Bridgestone Motorsport director Hiroshi Yasukawa explained the importance of MotoGP to other areas of the company’s business, why Bridgestone misses tyre-based competition in the sport, and the new challenges that come with being exclusive supplier. Rather than supporting seven teams and a total of thirteen riders as was the case at the end of last year, Bridgestone supplied tyres and provided support to every team and rider on the grid. In total there were five race-winners, including the first MotoGP win for Andrea Dovizioso and the first on Bridgestone tyres for Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, and eleven different riders finished on the podium. The World Championship was won by Valentino Rossi and the Fiat Yamaha Team at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the season.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
