Dunlop Take It to the Bridge All the Dunlop Teams at Le Mans Dunlop Art Car Competition Winner Unveiled!
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LE MANS SPECIAL INISSUE TOUCH23 MOTORSPORT NEWS DUNLOP TAKE IT TO THE BRIDGE ALL THE DUNLOP TEAMS AT LE MANS DUNLOP ART CAR COMPETITION WINNER UNVEILED! JUNE 2012 MOTORSPORT DUNLOP A HISTORY 34 OVERALL OF RACE WINS! LE MANS GLORY FROM THE WORLD FAMOUS BRIDGE TO THE ANNUAL ART CAR COMPETITION, LE MANS IS PART OF DUNLOP’s DNA This year Dunlop returns to La Sarthe with 23 cars competing using Dunlop tyres, including the entirety of the LMP2 class who have chosen Dunlop tyres rather than any competitors’. In recognition of an entire class on one manufacturers’ tyres, Dunlop has announced a special prize structure for LMP2 which will be topped by the fantastic opportunity for one team to receive free tyres for the rest of the season should an LMP2 car take an overall podium at Le Mans. A difficult goal, yes. Impossible? Well look at the results of the FIA World Endurance Championship and American Le Mans Series opener at the Sebring 12 Hours where a Dunlop-shod LMP2 did make it to the overall podium. Dunlop’s proud history at Le Mans incorporates 34 overall race wins – comfortably more than any other tyre manufacturer. Dunlop has won with Bentley, Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Jaguar, Ferrari, Porsche and Mazda to name but a few. From John Duff and Frank Clement taking their Bentley 3-litre across the line first in the second-ever running of the event in 1924, to the iconic 1991 victory for Mazda’s wailing Wankel engine with Volker Weidler, Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gashot at the wheel, Dunlop has shown time and again that it has what it takes at the most gruelling of test beds for the tyre makers art. Since that last overall win there have been countless class victories, not least last year’s LMP2 triumph for Greaves Motorsport in their #41 Zytek Nissan. This year sees the 80th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, and it’s sure to be filled with drama, excitement and, for the fortunate few, glory. Dunlop will be in the thick of it from the off. Get on board for the ride. 01 JUNE 2012 motorsport.dunlop.eu motorsport.dunlop.eu JUNE 2012 02 DUNLOP SET FOR DESCENTSFORT INTO DUNLOP’S LE MANS FORCE Once again this season, Dunlop will have a The remainder of the LMP2 field is made major presence on the grid for the 2012 up of single car entries from teams running of the most famous endurance including Level 5 Motorsports, Starworks race of them all – the Le Mans 24 Hours. Motorsport, JOTA, ADR-Delta and Lotus. Dunlop teams will again compete for No fewer than six different chassis honours in all four classes of the race and manufacturers – Oreca, Morgan (OAK), while victory is a given in LMP2, there is Lola, HPD, Zytek and Norma – are every opportunity that Dunlop-shod teams represented in the fight for LMP2 honours. could come away from the Circuit de la As in LMP1, the premier GT class - GTE Sarthe having clinched success in the two Pro - features just one Dunlop team in the GT classes. shape of JMW Motorsport; with Dunlop In total, 23 of the 56 cars on the entry technical partner BMW having elected to list will use Dunlop tyres for the round the focus on its American Le Mans and clock classic, led in the premier LMP1 Nurburgring 24H programmes. The British class by development partner OAK Racing team has already tasted success at Paul with a single car. The French team are the Ricard this season and will once again sole Dunlop team in LMP1 and will again carry a livery designed by the winner of this challenge the major factory teams in the year’s Dunlop Art Car Competition. race for honours. The final Dunlop entry comes in However, LMP2 is a different story GTE-Am, with the American team Krohn altogether, with all 20 cars on the entry list Racing having switched to the newer choosing the championship winning Ferrari 458 for this season. Krohn go into Dunlop tyres. Defending champions the race amongst the fancied runners for Greaves Motorsport return in an attempt class success. to defend the title secured last year, with OAK Racing, Signatech Nissan and Gulf Racing Middle East also having two cars in the race. JUNE 2012 03 JUNE 2012 motorsport.dunlop.eu motorsport.dunlop.eu 04 A NEW WORLD ORDER DUNLop’s WEC CONTENDERS Of the 23 Dunlop-shod cars competing team’s three drivers are the best-placed at Le Mans, 13 will be chasing a strong Dunlop representatives in the drivers’ result to score points towards the World championship, where they sit in sixth Endurance Championship. spot. In LMP1, OAK Racing will seek to Krohn Racing will seek to uphold GT get its challenge back on track after honours with a strong showing in the suspension issues just three minutes GTE-Am class. from the end saw the team retire from Heading to Le Mans, the team sits the second race of the season at Spa. third in the class standings having taken A strong run at Le Mans however, with a pair of fifth place finishes at Sebring double points on offer, would bring the and Spa. team right back into contention. OAK’s LMP2 team is in a stronger position, going into Le Mans second in the class standings behind ADR-Delta after the British team took victory at Spa. Starworks Motorsport sit third in class thanks to a stunning overall podium at Sebring which means the WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP In 2012, the Le Mans 24 Hours becomes part of the new FIA World must run at least one ‘gentleman’ driver. While the GTE-Pro class is Endurance Championship (WEC); a global championship created to open in terms of drivers, GTE-Am is aimed at ‘gentleman’ drivers with provide sportscar entrants with the chance to compete for a fully- teams required to run at least one pro-driver in the line-up. fledged FIA world title. Points are awarded on the same scale as in F1 to the top ten cars, Le Mans is one of eight races that make up the calendar for the with every car finishing lower than tenth being awarded 0.5 points. inaugural season, with the Sebring 12 Hours and the Six Hours of For Le Mans however, double points will be awarded to reflect the Spa having been run already. Following the French classic, six hour challenging nature of the race, with the six best scores from the races at Silverstone, Interlagos, Bahrain, Fuji and Shanghai complete season being used to determine the championship winner. the schedule. At the end of the year, the FIA World Endurance Champion Driver Four classes compete in the series: LMP1, LMP2, GTE-Pro and and Champion Manufacturer LMP1 will be crowned, while a range of GTE-Am. LMP1 is where the major manufacturer teams from Audi other trophies are also on offer. and Toyota are found, with LMP2 restricted to privateer outfits who 05 JUNE 2012 motorsport.dunlop.eu motorsport.dunlop.eumotorsport.dunlop.eu J JUUNENE 2012 2012 0606 The combined start of the WEC and American Le Mans Series (ALMS) One of the coldest May Saturdays in recent memory proved to be the perfect proved successful for Dunlop with wins in prototypes and GTs. test ground for Dunlop’s Le Mans preparations in the second round of the FIA Dunlop and BMW Team RLL set out to start the defence of their 2011 World Endurance Championship at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium on May 5. American Le Mans Series win with the top step of the podium in their A bumper grid of eighteen LMP2 cars – all choosing to use Dunlop tyres – SPA’s were entered for the Spa 6 Hours, with the WEC ranks bolstered by invited class, whilst Dunlop’s progress stateside was further highlighted by the DOUBLE European Le Mans Series cars. Chopard Racing Porsche of Paul Miller Racing, driven by Bryce Miller, Sascha Maassen and Rob Bell finished in a strong fifth place. Despite an uncharacteristically mild build-up, come race day the heavens Dyson Racing took the ALMS victory with their new Lola-Mazda at PERFECT opened. Fog was followed by heavy rain, while the cold temperatures meant Sebring. The car, shared by Chris Dyson, former Le Mans winner Guy that spectators’ frozen breath joined the fog and rain to reduce visibility further. DUNLOP Smith and Steven Kane, won on its latest Dunlop LMP1 tyres, despite “There was a lot of water, but not always steady rain falling so we had to only being tested for the first time a week prior. COLD & WET deal with a wide range of conditions, from full wet all the way through to slick The entire LMP2 field chose Dunlop for the Sebring 12 hour race, tyres, so for us it was a very good exercise in tyre performance,” said Dunlop WINS AND marking a testament of Dunlop’s tyre performance for prototypes Motorsport Europe General Manager, Jean-Felix Bazelin. through the previous year. WORKOUT Making the correct calls were the ELMS-entered Jota Zytek Z11SN-Nissan OVERALL Level 5 Motorsport came through to be top of the American driven by Simon Dolan and Sam Hancock to take the LMP2 win after fast- entrants at Sebring, but the sensational story from the class was paced and strategic battle with the #25 ADR-Delta Oreca of pole-man John that the first ever FIA World Championship LMP2 victors, (Stephane Martin, Robbie Kerr and Tor Graves, which was the first of the WEC-entered PODIUM AT Sarrazin, Vicente Potolicchio and Ryan Dalziel sharing an HPD- cars home.