Dunlop Makes a Clean Sweep at the Tt
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IN TOUCH MOTORSPORT NEWS ISSUE 12 JUNE ’10 DUNLOP MAKES A CLEAN SWEEP AT THE TT THIS ISSUE: THE LE MANS 24HR LAMBRETTA BACK IN 125CC GP VICTORY AT THE NURBURGRING 24HR IANNONTHISE WINS ISSUE:MUGELLO MOTO2 DUNLOP ENTERS MX1-GP DOWNLOAD IMAGE FRENCH GP LE MANS MOTO2 Date: 23/05/2010 Track name: Le Mans circuit Track length: 4185 m. Track temp: 44 ° C / Ambient temp: 31 ° C Spectators: 82,270 TYRE SPECS FOR THIS RACE Front: A - Soft, Multi-Tread E - Hard, Single Tread Rear: A - Soft D - Medium Hard The weekend was characterised by much warmer conditions than the MotoGP Paddock has seen at Le Mans for nearly 10 years, with track temperatures reaching 44 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday. Jack & Jones rider Kenny Noyes set the best lap in qualifying with 1’39.234 to put himself on pole position just ahead of Tech3 rider Yuki Takahashi +0.031, and Aerosport de Castello Ajo rider Alex Debon +0.086. Forward Racing’s Jules Cluzel, Holiday Gym G22’s Fonsi Nieto and Tenerife 40 Pons rider Sergio Gadea made up the next three grid positions ensuring that 6 different chassis’ were represented for the first 6 positions. The 26 lap race began with a number of incidents which put championship leader Technomag CIP rider Shoya Tomizawa, RSM Team Scot’s Alex De Angelis and pole setter Noyes along with 7 other riders out of race. Jules Cluzel set the fastest lap of the race on lap three before going on to take the lead from Toni Elias, much to the delight of the home crowd. Elias returned to the lead when Cluzel ran off, and went on to dominate the race and win ahead of Mapfre Aspar’s Julian Simon and JIR rider Simone Corsi. “That was a great race” said Elias, “I crashed during qualifying, and my team made a great job to get the bike ready for the race. I was able to settle into a fast, consistent rhythm and my lap times hardly varied throughout the 26 laps.” “We continue to see a consistency of performance being offered by all 14 different chassis’ present on the Moto2 grid.” commented Paul Medawar Dunlop’s Moto2 Manager. “The hot conditions allowed all the riders to opt for the Soft option rear tyre. Lap times were very consistent throughout, with Simone Corsi setting his quickest time on the last lap in his pursuit of a Podium position.” DOWNLOAD IMAGE ITALIAN GP MUGELLO MOTO2 Date: 06/06/2010 Track name: Mugello Track length: 5245 m. Track temp: 42 ° C / Ambient temp: 30 ° C Spectators: 76,814 TYRE SPECS FOR THIS RACE Front: B - Medium, Multi-Tread E - Hard, Single Tread Rear: B - Soft Medium C - Medium Fimmco Speed Up rider Andrea Iannone stamped his authority on the Moto2 qualifying session, setting a time that was 0.7 seconds faster than anyone else, up until Gresini’s Toni Elias managed to get within 0.3 seconds of him, on his last lap of the session. RSM Team Scot’s Alex De Angelis qualified in 3rd position 0.624 seconds behind Iannone, with 25 riders within 1 second of De Angelis’ time. The race was highlighted by Iannone’s dominant performance, lapping almost 1 second a lap quicker than anyone else for the first 7 laps, and holding a comfortable lead, crossing the line 2.764 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. Whilst Iannone stormed home, the 77,000 crowd of passionate Italians who thronged the Tuscan hills in brilliant 30C sunshine witnessed incredible action throughout the rest of the field with second place changing hands 11 times throughout the 21 lap race. The chasing group of Elias, Tenerife Pons rider Sergio Gadea, JIR’s Simone Corsi, Interwetten’s Thomas Luthi and Technomag’s Shoya Tomizawa battled into every corner, until Gadea slipped past Corsi (who had started from 26th place on the 41 rider grid) on the final sprint to the flag to claim second place. Tomizawa crossing the line in 6th place, 1.062 seconds behind. Iannone was thrilled with his first Moto2 victory, and in front of his home crowd. “I chose the softer option rear tyre and was able to open up a 5 second gap over the field in the first few laps.A fter that I could control my pace and leave the pursuing group to scrap over the other podium places.” “All but 2 riders chose to ride with the Single Compound Hard front tyre. However the choice of rear split the riders, with 23 out of the 41 riders choosing to race on the Medium Compound rear.” Commented Jeremy Ferguson. “Both were very consistent, allowing a number of riders to complete their last lap, within the same second as their fastest of the race”. Next Race: Grand Prix of Britain, Silverstone 20th June DOWNLOAD IMAGE The FIM have announced changes to the rules in regards to tyre choice for Moto2: MOTO2 RULE CHANGES The regulation has been changed in response to requests from teams and now mirrors the MotoGP class regulation. Front slick tyres: 7 in total, comprised of either: 3 of specification A“ ” + 4 of specification “B” or 4 of specificationA “ ” + 3 of specification “B” Front tyre specification choice will be made as follows: 6 tyres comprised of 3 of specification “A” + 3 of specification “B” will be allocated on the day before the start of official practice as per Art. 2.9.2. 1 tyre will be allocated after the first practice, comprised of: 1 of specification “A” or 1 of specification “B” The riders´ selection of front tyre specification must be informed to the tyre supplier no later than 2 hours after the end of the first practice session. If no specification selection is received by this time the allocation of the 1 tyre will automatically be 1 of specification “A”. DUNLOP TAKES BEST IN CLASS IN LMP1 AT LE MANS 24HR DOWNLOAD IMAGE The 78th edition of the Le Mans 24 hours saw Dunlop Motorsport the race wasn’t perfect, and we had a starter motor issue with about support no fewer than 19 of the 56 starters, the largest percentage 90 minutes to go which was a bit tricky but it was fixed very, very of teams choosing to run Dunlop tyres since 1993. quickly as you’d expect from the ORECA team.” In the LMP1 class, against the diesel-powered Audis and Peugeots, AIM Team Oreca Matmut finished fourth overall, behind the factory Jean-Felix Bazelin, General Manager, Dunlop Motorsport was Audi team and ahead of the Aston Martin Racing team cars. With satisfied with the end result: “Dunlop’s target was to be the highest very little development completed since last year other than the tyres, finisher behind the factory enteredA udi and Peugeot cars, so to finish the car lapped nearly five seconds faster in 2010 and was the fastest fourth – and be ‘best in class’ of the petrol powered entries is a petrol powered car competing in LMP1. fantastic result that rewards our intensive development of tyres for Le Mans Prototypes over recent years.” “There was no way we were going to beat the diesels,” said Oreca driver Andy Meyrick. “To finish top petrol is unbelievable. The start of Attendance: 238,150. DUNLOP AND OAK RACING PODIUM IN LMP2 The OAK Racing Mazda France Team finished second in LMP2 with Matthieu Lahaye, Guillaume Moreau and Jan Charouz at the wheel of their Pescarolo-judd prototype. The French team built on their 2009 success where they finished third, improving to be just one spot off the winning step. Oak Racing were not Dunlop’s only success in LMP2 with three of the four top finishers racing on Dunlop tyres. “We have contested three races, and finished on the podium three times,” said Moreau. “We were fairly realistic that we couldn’t catch the Acura, so we had to play on the strategy and reliability.” DOWNLOAD IMAGE DUNLOP CELEBRATE A STRONG PODIUM DOWNLOAD IMAGE IN GT1 WITH LUC ALPHAND AVENTURES The Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette driven by teams. Both ran strongly, but the BMW Art car races are completely different. Le Mans is a very Jerome Licand, Stephan Gregoire and David Hart suffered mechanical problems, and retired in the flat circuit, and the speeds are very high. At the put in a solid drive to repeat the team’s 2009 sixth hour. The sister car overcame driveshaft and Nurburgring it is much bumpier. This was the first success in the GT1 class, delivering a second steering problems to finish sixth in class. The time that the BMW raced here, and we are all on consecutive Le Mans 24HR GT1 second place JMW Aston Martin team also retired in the sixth a huge learning curve. We were a little bit podium finish. The C6.R Corvette completed 327 hour while recovering from a steering pump unfortunate, but I am quite happy with what we laps on Dunlop Sport Maxx slicks with a best lap failure. American Bryce Miller lost control of the put together at the end. We can clearly say we time of 3:55.631 on the 8-mile race course, car in the Porsche Curves, and crashed heavily, have fitted the best placed petrol car, and none of averaging about 124 miles per hour - for 24 hours sustaining concussion. the teams have had any problems [with the tyres]. straight. It has been a pretty quick race, and a 24 hour “We have done two 24 hour races in a very short test in motor racing is the toughest thing we can Dunlop was also well represented in the GT2 time,” said Dunlop’s Motorsport Manager Michael do for development, and we have done well.” division with the factory BMW and Aston Martin Bellman.