The 2010 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season finale is this weekend at Road Atlanta, but Yokohama Tire Corp. is already gearing up for 2011. The Fullerton, Calif.-based tire company announced it has signed a deal with West Racing Team to provide Advan race tires for the team’s two sleek Lamborghinis, which will campaign in the ALMS GT Class.
“Advan represents Yokohama’s motorsports heritage,” said Mark Chung, Yokohama director of corporate strategy and planning, “and we’ve had quite a bit of success at the track with them over the last quarter century. From the eco-friendly, orange oil-infused Advan ENV-R2 tires used today in GT3 and GTC, to the Advan slicks campaigned in GT2, racing has always been the perfect opportunity to showcase Yokohama’s technical capabilities. This will be especially true next year on West Racing’s Lamborghinis. That’s why we’re look forward to a successful, winning relationship with owner Eduardo Espindola and his team. With the Ferraris, Porsches, Corvettes and everyone else battling it out, we feel the GT Class is going to be super competitive and a lot of fun. The West Racing Lamborghinis will be right in the mix and ready for the challenge.”
Pirelli Named Official Tire of World Challenge Championships
Pirelli Tire North America has been selected as the official tire supplier for the World Challenge Championships in a five-year partnership that puts the production-based series on racing slick tires. Pirelli will supply all cars in the World Challenge GT, GTS and Touring Car categories with the P Zero Racing Slick and P Zero Racing Rain tires beginning in 2011, the 22nd year of the SCCA Pro Racing-sanctioned championship.
”Our colleagues at Pirelli have been very professional to work with in coming to the agreement on the partnership,” said Scott Bove, director of operations for WC Vision, the managing arm of World Challenge. “Our competitors have been asking for a racing slick for years and Pirelli is able to do this. We expect the tire will be yet another reason that new teams will consider competing in the Sports Car Wars of World Challenge.”
Michelin Teams Score Wins at Petit Le Mans
The 2010 American Le Mans Series season ended Oct. 2 as it began seven months ago, with exciting competition and Michelin teams atop the podiums. The Peugeot 908 HDi FAP turbo-diesel coupe of Pedro Lamy, Franck Montagny, and Stephane Sarrazin led a Michelin sweep of the top four positions overall, as Michelin teams scored the wins in all three ALMS open classes and captured 15 of the top 18 spots in the 1,000-mile event on the hilly and challenging 2.54 mile permanent road circuit.
“Road Atlanta is one of the most difficult and demanding tracks in North American and the elevation changes, high speed corners, and endless traffic place tremendous loads on tires,” said Silvia Mammone, motorsports manager for Michelin North America. “It is very satisfying to our engineers, tire developers, chemists and support staff to see all of our technical partners able to perform at a very high level over the entire 1,000 mile race.”
Taking the victory in the LMP2 class to celebrate “back-to- back” ALMS championships was the Connecticut-based Highcroft HPD team led by Duncan Dayton and drivers David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti. A frustrating season of close calls, misfortune and lost opportunities provided a surprising happy ending for Corvette Racing, which ended a year-long victory drought in dramatic fashion. After a race-long battle with rival Risi Competizione Ferrari, Corvette’s luck suddenly turned around on the final lap as it surged past the fuel-starved Ferrari to claim the victory. Extreme Speed Ferrari secured its first podium as a 2010 newcomer, with the Risi Ferrari in third place. Flying Lizard Porsche’s Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long successfully defended their GT Driver championship, giving Bergmeister his fifth championship and a third for Long. Scott Tucker’s Level 5 team delivered the first LMP-Challenge class championship with a victory at Petit Le Mans. A single specification series with identical Oreca chassis, Chevrolet engines, the class provided excellent competition in its inaugural season as Tucker scored five wins to four for Green Earth Team Gunnar and Gunnar Jeannette.
The big winners of the day however were the Danbury, Conn.-based Highcroft HPD, which claimed the year-long Michelin Green X Challenge Prototype honors and the Sonoma, Calif.-based Flying Lizard Porsche team that successfully defended its Michelin Green X Challenge GT championship. The Hilliard, Ohio-based BMW Rahal Letterman Racing team captured GT category honors and became the 12th different car from 10 teams and seven manufacturers to claim a Michelin Green X Challenge victory in 2010 ALMS competition. Meanwhile, the Gloucestershire U.K/Bozeman, Mont.-based Drayson Racing Lola Judd scored its third Michelin Green X Challenge Prototype victory of the season.
Dixon Takes Final Contest, Franchitti Captures 2010 IndyCar Series Crown
Target Chip Ganassi Racing won the battle and the war at Homestead last weekend as Ganassi driver Scott Dixon survived a frantic battle up front to win the race in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone car, while teammate Dario Franchitti (in the No. 10 car) finished eighth – good enough to capture his second straight and third overall Izod IndyCar Series championship. It marks the eighth major open-wheel title for the Ganassi team, all coming on Firestone tires.
“We’re here because every person at Team Target, from Chip right on down, has the same desire to win that Chip does,” said Franchitti after the race.
“What an amazing way to finish an outstanding season,” said Al Speyer, executive director of Firestone Racing. “Once again there was plenty of good, hard, close racing, which underscores just how good the drivers, all the equipment and especially the tires are. It was great to see Danica Patrick (second place) and her teammate Tony Kanaan (third place) battling so closely at the end. Their competition alone gave the fans plenty to cheer about. Of course, we need to congratulate the entire Target Chip Ganassi Racing organization. Another win for Scott Dixon and a storybook second straight championship for Dario Franchitti.”
Loeb Takes WRC Crown on Pirelli Tires
Sebastien Loeb had double cause for celebration after reaching the finish of Rallye de France on Oct. 3 with an advantage of 35.7 seconds. Not only did the 36-year-old from France capture his 60th victory at world championship level in front of hundreds and thousands of spectators, he also secured his seventh world title, the 11th by a driver using Pirelli tires.
While Loeb’s triumph on his home rally was widely considered a foregone conclusion before Thursday’s ceremonial start in Strasbourg, the tricky stage conditions put the onus firmly on survival as the rain-hit asphalt tests of the Alsace region became coated in mud and gravel dragged onto the road by competing crews taking ‘cuts’ through corners. “For sure this is really special and it’s incredible for me to win my seventh world title here in my home town,” said Loeb. “It has been a very impressive rally but very difficult. There has been a lot of support and I really did not expect this. With Dani Sordo finishing second, Citroen has won the manufacturers’ title and me my 60th world championship rally. Sure I led from the start but the conditions never made it easy and I really had to concentrate. Fortunately, my car and the tires were always very good and never let me down.”
Jari-Matti Latvala, who produced arguably his best performance on asphalt by going fastest on three stages in his factory Ford Focus WRC and finishing fourth overall. “The mud, the rain and the cold temperatures made the conditions the most difficult we have ever experienced on a Tarmac rally,” said Pirelli’s senior WRC tire engineer Matteo Braga. “There was a lot of mud and small stones dragged onto the road and the stage surface, which was already very inconsistent, became even more difficult for the drivers. There were quite a few problems of broken rims through drivers taking big ‘cuts’ resulting in tires losing their air. But there were several cases when drivers came back to service with badly damaged rims but with all the air still in the tire.”
As well as counting for round 11 of the 13-event World Rally Championship, Rallye de France also formed the penultimate rounds of the Super 2000 and Production world championships, which use Pirelli tires as standard. Patrik Sandell, driving a Skoda Fabia S2000, took the honors in the SWRC category with Armindo ArÁujo winning the PWRC in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. French wildcard entrant Jeremi Ancian completed a clean sweep of the support championship for Pirelli when he won the Junior World Rally Championship division in his Suzuki Swift S1600. Rallye de France was the fifth event of the season for the five Pirelli Star Drivers Nick Georgiou, Peter Horsey, Hayden Paddon, Alex Raschi and Ott Tanak. The program, a joint initiative between Pirelli and the FIA, motorsport’s world governing body, gives promising talents from around the world the chance to compete on six WRC events in identical Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Xs. Tanak was the leading finisher after an electrical fault meant Paddon hit trouble on Friday’s opening leg. The World Rally Championship heads next to Spain for the next round of the season from Oct. 21-24.
Dunlop Helps Carry BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team to ALMS Championships
Goodyear’s Dunlop tires were on the BMW M3 racing cars of the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team as they rolled to the 2010 American Le Mans Series GT Manufacturer and Team Championships during the season-ending Petit Le Mans endurance race on Oct. 2 at Road Atlanta.
BMW Rahal Letterman Racing rode to the season titles on a fourth-place finish by its #92 car, completing 354 laps in a race that lasted more than nine hours and 12 minutes. Ironically, it was the only event of the 2010 season that the team did not finish with at least one of its two BMW M3 racecars on the podium. Still, the finish was enough to score the points needed to stay ahead of Ferrari and Porsche in the GT Manufacturers Championship by a point. Most racing observers considered the GT segment to be the most competitive class in the ALMS during 2010, with teams from BMW, Ferrari, Porsche and Corvette battling it out, and each winning a race this year. For Bobby Rahal, president of BMW Rahal Letterman Racing, the Dunlop tires played an integral role in the championship achievement.
“Winning the ALMS Manufacturer and Team Championships this year is a great testament to the work ethic and the desire to improve that was shown by everyone involved with Dunlop this year. Every time the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team M3s turned a wheel this year, Dunlop was there gathering data and looking for ways to make us better and it paid off with a championship,” said Rahal.
Falken Delivers Strong Effort at Petit Le Mans
The final round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron was the perfect culmination of what has been a tough and demanding season. The 10-hour/1,000-mile Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda 2 held at Road Atlanta was the 13th running of this popular event, though there was no bad luck for Falken Tire Corp.
Team Falken came to Road Atlanta well-prepared in every way, installing a fresh 4.0-liter Porsche Flat Boxer engine on Friday in preparation for Saturday’s race, as it ran as quickly as 4th in practice. The Porsche qualified 11th out of 17 GT class cars, and during the race, gained two positions from one pit stop, due to the tremendous efforts of the crew. Team Falken eventually finished 10th in class, beating Ford GT, Jaguar, Ferrari and BMW entries in what remained the largest class all season long.
“It’s been a great year for Team Falken,” said Rod Everett, Falken team manager. “We’ve had some bumps in the road, but overall, things have jelled and we’ve been getting the correct compounds for our Falken Azenis RT slicks and dialing in the right settings for the car.”