Falken has signed a cooperation agreement with DriveTribe, the online automotive platform founded by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. The partnership is for a period of three months and Falken says content is king, with the main focus being on content production. While Falken provides the motorsports and test platforms, Richard Hammond is producing a range of material for the DriveTribe channels.
Falken Motorsports has completed a shakedown of its 2019 race cars at Portugal’s Autodromo Internacional Algarve ahead of the 2019 VLN Endurance Championship, which begins on 23 March 2019. This season the team will introduce the new 2019 Porsche 911 GT3 R, with the test marking the first running for the new chassis as well as the new larger 300/680R18 Falken tyres fitted to the front axle to provide additional grip. The rear axle is fitted with 310/710R18 tyres, which are the same as the team’s previous model.
Zenises’ diamond and gold embellished world’s most expensive tyre has been featured on Jeremy Clarkson’s Amazon Prime vehicle, The Grand Tour. Launching the final show in the series from Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, Clarkson introduced the Guinness World Record-holding Z Tyre to the studio audience. The show concluded with co-host Richard Hammond drifting alongside the lead driver of Acorn Zenises Motorsport, Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagioni.
This weekend saw the finale of the 2015 Clarkson, Hammond and May Live Tour take place at the O2 Arena in London. Yokohama was there to cheer TV’s most famous presenting trio on as they and a host of stunt drivers performed a series of spectacular displays in Yokohama-shod cars.
The Clarkson, Hammond & May Live tour will feature Yokohama as its Official Tyre Supplier. A renegotiated deal was struck to allow the motoring presenter trio to fulfil its live commitments despite Jeremy Clarkson’s infamous removal from the flagship BBC show. The result of the renegotiation was the removal of Top Gear branding and pre-existing material filmed alongside the presenters’ work on the TV show. The Japanese tyre manufacturer told Tyrepress that it has agreed to maintain its tyre supply deal for the three remaining weekends, with Yokohama branding and promotional materials to appear in and around the arenas in Belfast, Sheffield and London.
Top Gear Live is dead; long live Clarkson, Hammond and May Live! The deal struck this week following Jeremy Clarkson’s ignominious departure from Top Gear to salvage the extensive 2015 Top Gear Live schedule has underlined the ending of Clarkson’s association with the brand and the BBC. While a decision on the fate of the programme – and presenters Richard Hammond and James May – remains in discussions, the deal guarantees ticket holders to see most of the show for which they bought tickets. But are the show’s principle corporate supporters happy with the new arrangement?
Now that Jeremy Clarkson must be considered an ex-Top Gear presenter, the future of the planned Top Gear Live arena tour also been called into question. Four shows due to take place in Norway were postponed with replacement dates yet to be announced while the BBC’s investigation into Clarkson’s behaviour was completed. Having reported its findings that Clarkson made “an unprovoked physical and verbal attack” on his producer on 25 March, it appears the shows, and the rest of the ambitious Top Gear Live arena tour, remain in jeopardy – a potential marketing headache for the UK tour’s title sponsor Gocompare, and tyre supplier, Yokohama.
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