Dmack Tyres celebrates PWRC victory in World Rally debut
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.
S2000 runner-up Martin Prokop said: “The Dmack tyres have been working well here and you can see the speed has been very good on the snow. I was surprised how good they have been on the first rally – I’m very happy with this weekend. We have been able to fight with the other S2000 drivers and even against some of the WRC cars. I will be testing the Dmack gravel tyre next week.”
Dick Cormack, Dmack Tyres motorsport director, said: “It’s been a dream result for us this weekend – we could never have imagined that a driver on Dmack tyres could win on our very first WRC event. We were quietly confident regarding the performance and durability of the tyres but now it has been proven on the world stage and during some of the toughest winter conditions. It’s been a very successful weekend for Dmack and we’ve proved that our tyres can perform well on WRC, S2000 and Group N cars. The results will certainly give competitors a strong sense of confidence now to use our product.”
The event provided crews with 351km of icy rally action over 22 special stages and it was on the first proper stage on Friday morning, Vargåsen, when a Dmack shod car first scored a top-10 stage time. Prokop, in his Ford Fiesta S2000, claimed tenth and on stage four he went faster than the works cars of Latvala, Ogier and current WRC champion Loeb. Dmack says its most significant stage was the first pass of Lesjöfors, on which Prokop set DMACK’s first ever fastest time in the S2000 class as he battled for the lead with Swede Patrik Sandell. In addition, Semerad, who had been putting in a steady first day drive, moved into second place in the Production class. The second pass saw Prokop again as the fastest S2000 driver while Semerad inherited the PWRC lead in his Mitsubishi Evo after early pacesetter Anders Grondal retired.
Semerad then dominated the PWRC class, taking his first ever victory by over five minutes and scoring four PWRC fastest times along the way. In line with DMACK’s season-long incentives focused, the company says on making rallying more affordable for crews, the young Czech’s class win knocks 50 per cent off his tyre bill for this rally. Prokop, however, was locked in a tense final day battle for S2000 victory with Sandell after the Swede incurred time penalties leaving service. He settled for runner-up spot and claimed four quickest S2000 times over the weekend.
Dmack also experienced some UK domestic success: Paul Bird finished second overall on the Wyedean Rally using DMACK’s DMG2 gravel tyre on his Ford Focus WRC.
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