Lassa Tyres has become tyre sponsor for the V1 Challenge Moldova – a series held in a number of cities and run using Volkicars, a race car developed by Turkish racing driver Volkan Işık. And while Lassa’s sponsorship deal is new, the tyre maker can claim a further connection of sorts to the V1 Challenge – the series was developed by Işık, who led the Lassa Rally Team from 2007 to 2010.
Pirelli, Kumho and Dmack have announced that they will supply tyres to the 2013 MSA British Historic Rally Championship, following the competition’s move to an open choice era. Dunlop, the supplier to the UK’s premier historic rally series for the past four years will continue to make its tyres available to the championship, which takes in both gravel and asphalt events across the country. The championship features old-school rally machinery dating from the 1950s to the 1980s. “We firmly believe this is the right time to open up the tyre supply situation,” said championship manager Simon Marks. “More tyre manufacturers are now in a position to supply the historic market and our competitors will now be able to choose between four excellent suppliers.”
Kumho, who only recently was appointed official tyre supplier to the global Auto GP Series, has now also won the contract to supply all the tyres for the Fédération Française du Sport Automobile's (FFSA) F4 single-seater racing championship.
This year the World Superbike Championship celebrates its 25th anniversary, and Pirelli – who has been involved in the series from its inception and as sole supplier since 2004 – has decided to mark the occasion by creating an exclusive version of the Superpole tyre the riders will use at Monza on 5 May to decide the starting order for the next day’s races.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe Ltd will exhibit its latest and “most innovative” 4×4, ultra high performance passenger car and motorcycle ranges at Reifen 2012. The company (Hall 3, Stand 241) will bring new products from both its Cooper and Avon brands to the annual international tyre fair in order to showcase the strides being made in tyre development and technology, including design work conducted at its European Technical Centre in Melksham, UK. The Cooper display will feature the newest Discoverer S/TMAXX and the Discoverer A/T3 4×4 tyres, while Avon will be represented by its ZZ5 UHP passenger car tyre, launched last year to complement the ZZ3, as well as its brand-new 3D Ultra range of motorcycle tyres.
Double British Rally Champion and former Pirelli Star Driver Keith Cronin claimed victory on this weekend’s Pirelli International Rally, the third round of the 2012 Pirelli-supported MSA British Rally Championship. Pirelli Star Driver Jukka Korhonen shone in his TEG-prepared Skoda Fabia R2 at the weekend, securing his best finish of the season with sixth overall, and second in class. Meanwhile, a sterling performance in a Ford Fiesta R2 allowed 21-year old, Jussi Kumpumaki who is part of the Finnish Ford Junior Team, was presented with the coveted Pirelli yellow jersey and a nomination towards the end of season Pirelli Star Driver shoot out.
Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe Ltd has appointed Peter McNally as general manager of its European Technical Centre at the company’s European headquarters in Melksham, UK. The appointment follows the move of former ETC head Gavin Edwards to Cooper’s Asia Technical Center. McNally takes up his new role with immediate effect.
When American racer Tanner Foust won the opening round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship at Lydden Hill over Easter weekend, he helped to continue Avon Tyres’ dominance of the category in recent years. Champions of the prestigious series in the last 20 years have all used Avon’s rallycross rubber.
Pirelli motorsport director, Paul Hembery has commented that Bahrain presented a technical challenge to Pirelli, whose tyres needed to avoid “falling off the cliff” in terms of their performance in harsh racing conditions. Sebastian Vettel became the fourth different driver and Red Bull the fourth different team to have won a Grand Prix after four events. Hembery believes the narrowing of the performance gaps between compounds has helped racing become tighter, evinced by these results. The Pirelli director also congratulated the company’s former test driver Roman Grosjean for claiming a first podium finish, and his Lotus team, which finished on the second (Kimi Raikkonen) and third steps.
Jean-Louis Schlesser won the 2012 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge for a record-breaking sixth time on Cooper’s Discoverer STT tyre. Cooper says the tyre excels in these extreme conditions, with an aggressive tread pattern and tapered stone ejectors, which help prevent stones and debris lodging in the tread, keeping them clear and maintaining traction. Schlesser’s victory meant he took the overall points lead in the 2012 FIA World Cup Cross-Country Rallies Championship.
Kumho’s motorsport division has topped its previous best performance in the upper tiers of rallying with its tyres’ performance in the Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland Rally (April 6-7), according to its management. Drivers using the company’s rubber are currently leading two classes of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, as well as leading the Group N class of the Irish Tarmac Championship and the Irish Forestry Series. European Motorsport manager, Steve Thompson said: “We’ve achieved some great results in rallying over the last few years, but this beats our previous record at this level of the sport.”
Maxxis International has announced that its stand at Reifen 2012 will highlight the latest technologies feeding through its R&D centres and to reinforce the breadth of its product range and variety of applications served. The 5-8 June international showcase event is an important platform for building new contacts, reinforcing existing relationships and doing business for the Taiwanese company, a fact underlined by the presence of Warren Lin, managing director of sales, the company says. In Hall 3 on Stand 123 the latest Maxxis high performance and cold weather tyres will line up alongside specialist competition products.
The Cooper Tires British F3 Series – long established as a feeder series to the pinnacle of single-seat racing – begins at Oulton Park on Easter weekend, alongside the British GT Championship, provided and sponsored by Cooper brand, Avon. The F3 series runs on Cooper rubber, and the brand has been title sponsor since the 2009 season, when it took over from Avon; in total the company has now been involved in the series for 30 years, its first season being 1982.
Northern Ireland’s Alastair Fisher has won the opening round of the 2012 FIA WRC Academy on Rally Portugal. Academy events are run exclusively on Pirelli rubber, and the Italian manufacturer supplied its K4 gravel tyre to deal with particularly tough conditions; the entire loop of three stages on Friday afternoon was cancelled following several delays in the morning caused by rain and mud. Pirelli’s WRC Academy tyre engineer Matteo Braga said: “The first round of the Academy was certainly filled with action, and conditions that go beyond what we would normally expect from this event. Even though the weather was extreme, the K4 tyres coped extremely well with some of the biggest challenges that they have ever faced.”
The Dyfi and Dyfnant forests in north Wales hosted the Bulldog International Rally of North Wales, supplied by Pirelli’s K6 gravel tyre, over the weekend, where local driver Tom Cave secured his maiden victory at the wheel of a Citroen DS3 R3T. Pirelli said that its K6 control tyre coped well with the unseasonably warm and dry conditions. In other Pirelli news, the company-backed Star Driver, Jukka Korhonen drove his TEG Sport prepared Skoda Fabia R2 with a “measured approach” that rewarded the Finn with his first points finish; he claimed seventh overall and second in class.
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