Bridgestone is supporting a competition that sees primary schools up and down the country encourage potential car designers of the future to think creatively about the future of the environment and green transport. The Green Machine competition involves pupils designing a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly, futuristic vehicle which could be anything from cars, vans and trucks to motorbikes, aeroplanes and helicopters.
Motorsport is viewed by Yokohama Rubber as a “key aspect its efforts to develop its global tyre business,” and with this in mind the Japanese tyre maker says it will “strive to increase the degree of recognition of the Yokohama tyre brand through a wide range of motor sports activities in Japan and around the world.” On March 24 the company announced its global motorsport plans for 2011.
A Land Rover Defender shod with standard 255/55R18 Cooper 4XS tyres has topped the Kirkby Lonsdale Motor Club drivers and co-drivers competition at the start of the UK’s domestic rally season. Mike Dawn and Jane Clarke, from Windermere, chose the biodiesel-powered 4×4 to compete in a series of national rally events during the 2011 season. In their first rally on the North West Stages, they completed 24 stages and 75 competitive miles of asphalt routes to finish 41st out of 105 competitors.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s motorsport director, has become a trustee of the Richard Burns Foundation, established in memory of the 2001 world rally champion. “Richard was the first world champion I worked with and he set the bar in terms of being a highly motivated and competitive athlete, while remaining a very grounded, decent person and I was proud to call him a friend,” said Hembery. “Taking on the role of trustee for the Richard Burns Foundation is a privilege.”
Hankook Tire says it is aiming for championship success in the 2011 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) after signing up to support driver Toni Gardemeister and his team. The Finnish driver will contest selected rounds in a Hankook shod Skoda S2000, beginning with next month’s Rally Canarias.
Kumho achieved its third rally victory in as many weeks on Saturday when Andy Burton and Robin Kellard won the Malcolm Wilson Rally in their Peugeot Cosworth. The Subaru Impreza of Roger Chilman and Andrew Sankey finished second overall and the Mitsubishi Evo IX of Stephen Petch and John Richardson finished eighth, meaning Kumho-shod cars filled three of the top 10 places on this popular event. Kumho’s European Motorsport manager Steve Thompson said: “Andy is clearly on a roll and our gravel tyres once again proved to be the best rubber for the job. We will continue to look after our growing number of runners to the best of our ability and hope the season continues as successfully as it has started.”
Following the snow and ice encountered in the opening round of the 2011 World Rally Championship, round two gave drivers the opportunity to become better acquainted with their Michelin Latitude Cross tyres. Rally Mexico, held between March 3 and 6, took place in temperatures of up to 35°C and featured rough, rocky stages along with narrow, twisting sections that proved a worthy test of driver skill. Despite the heat encountered, Michelin reports its tyres were “particularly competitive and even enabled the drivers to beat 2010's benchmark times on certain stages.” The tyre maker notes this is an especially remarkable achievement given that under new regulations the latest-generation WRC cars are less powerful than their predecessors which contested last year's event.
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It probably comes as no surprise that the fastest man on ice is a Finn. Nokian Tyres test driver Janne Laitinen set a new world speed record for driving a car on ice on March 6 when he nursed his Audi – shod with size 255/35R20 97 T XL studded Hakkapeliitta 7 tyres – up to 331.61 km/h (206.05 mph) on a 14 kilometre track laid out on the frozen Gulf of Bothnia near the city of Oulu.
Taiwan’s Federal Tires is calling 2011 its “year of motorsports” as it continues to develop its product portfolio, which includes the FZ-101, FZ-201, FZ-202 on track and the Federally G-10 and G-11 rallying tyres. The FZ-201 is used in four motorsports series – the Nippon Challenge in UK; the Rally Tarmac Championship; Malaysian Super Series Championship; and the Sepang 1000km (S1K) Endurance and Touring Car categories.
Four of the top ten finishers at the GMF Motor Factors Wydean Forest Rally on 12 February were shod with Kumho R800 gravel rally tyres, the Korean manufacturer reports. They included the Peugeot Cosworth of Andy Burton and Robin Kellard, which took the top podium spot, and the Mitsubishi Evo IX of David Wright and Michael Wilkinson that was fourth overall and first in class B13.
Michelin has returned to the World Rally Championship in Sweden, providing its X-Ice North tyre to Mikko Hirvonen, who produced what Michelin termed: “a practically mistake-free performance to claim a fine win for Ford Abu Dhabi WRT and the brand new Fiesta RS WRC”. The manufacturer was pleased with the tyre’s performance in challenging, varied conditions: Falling snow greeted the early stages, while on others portions of gravel gradually became exposed as the cars cut through the icy coating. Michelin said the tyres “were still equipped with practically all their [384] studs at the ends of the long looping stages”. Current WRC regulations only permit manufacturers to run one type of tyre per rally.
The first round of the 2011 World Rally Championship has yielded a win in the production car category (PWRC) for Dmack Tyres at its debut event. Czech driver Martin Semerad used the brand’s DMG-ICE tyre to seal what Dmack describes as “a dream start” in Sweden. In the S2000 category Martin Prokop also secured second place on Dmack rubber. Dmack is lined up beside global tyre giant Michelin as the only two tyre manufacturers authorised to supply rubber to WRC competitors.
In a move it refers to as the “biggest announcement in Indian motorsport in recent times,” JK Tyre has officially launched the JK Racing Asia Series, a championship sponsored by the tyre maker and managed by Motorsport Asia, the region’s largest promoter and organiser of motorsport events. The series gets underway in April and the 2011 season will consist of 18 races held over six weekend events in Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia, China, Singapore and India. On three occasions the JK Racing Asia Series will support the Formula One Grand Prix.
The new tyre supply entrant into the World Rally Championship DMACK Tyres states that it is ready for its “biggest test” – the 59th running of Rally Sweden on 10-13 February, which marks the Chinese manufactured brand’s debut. The Swedish event is the beginning of what could be termed a fresh start in the history of the WRC with new cars, manufacturers and tyre suppliers – one of the global big three, Michelin is also joining the championship in 2011.
Michelin has reported the success of the maiden competitive appearance of the Michelin Desert Race tyre on the 2011 Dakar. Last Saturday in Buenos Aires, Argentina Spanish rider Marc Coma and his MRW Rally Factory Team-run KTM and Frenchman Cyril Despres with Team Red Bull KTM finished first and second respectively, both having run on the new Michelin tyre. The tough 9,500km event included 5,000km of against-the-clock action over some of Argentina and Chile's most difficult tracks and trails.
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