The 47th edition of Rétromobile, a leading international consumer event for vintage cars, bringing together more than 600 exhibitors, will kick off the festivities celebrating the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This unprecedented display dedicated to French craftsman and manufacturers who have shone at Le Mans will be held in Pavilion 1 of Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from 1 to 5 February 2023.
Falken Motorsports’ Nürburgring-based GT programme and drifting action resulted in another memorable season for the brand in 2022. The endurance racing team claimed two memorable victories, while Cork-based Falken drifter James Deane augmented pan-European competition with a return to the mainstream automotive media, with a Top Gear Magazine video feature.
GT Radial car number 97 made history in the 2022 Fun Cup Endurance Championship, becoming the competition’s first ever vehicle driven by an all-female line-up. Experienced racers Wendy Ellis-Smith, Michelle Hayward and Zoe Burke came together for the first time at Snetterton in July. They finished ninth in a field of 19 having started in pole position. In addition to its all-female weekend, Giti used its entry in the Fun Cup to bring together racing legends, celebrities and influencers to pilot the car, led by Giti Tire’s senior test engineer Ellis Hadley. Looking back on the 2022 competition, the GT Radial team said it had enjoyed several memorable achievements.
FCC TSR Honda France has won the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme Endurance World Championship (EWC) title on Bridgestone’s Battlax tyres. This is the third time a team supplied by Bridgestone has won the world’s foremost series of endurance motorcycle races since 2018. The second placed Yoshimura Sert Motul ranked second in the EWC series, also on Bridgestone tyres. Bridgestone has supplied grippy, durable Battlax tyres to the EWC since 2017. It says this motorsport deal, alongside its other global motorsport partnerships, embodies its commitment to inspire mobility excitement under Bridgestone’s E8 strategy.
The Giti Tire Motorsport by WS Racing team returns to the Nürburgring 24-Hour on 26-29 May seeking to defend its class victory in the powerful SP8 category in 2021. The trailblazing #gitiracing all-female team will compete in a new BMW M4 GT4, one of four taking to the grid for Giti Tire Motorsport by WS Racing. The team is celebrating its sixth straight year at legendary Nordschleife and the fourth with the pioneering ‘Girls Only – Ready to Rock the Green Hell’ crew. All cars will run on the GitiCompete GTR1 tyre, part of Giti’s comprehensive global motorsport portfolio. This year marks a milestone for the event too; it is the 50th ADAC TOTAL 24h Race.
Freddie Hunt, professional racing driver and son of Formula One legend James Hunt, is the latest big name to compete in the GT Radial car number 97 in the 2021 Fun Cup Endurance Championship. He follows Isle of Man TT legend John McGuiness and Steve Peat, multiple World and British Downhill Mountain Bike Champion in taking the seat in this year’s series. Racing at Croft with Ellis Hadley, senior test engineer at Giti Tire, the team finished a respectable 10th place having started 17th on the grid for the four-hour endurance race.
Giti Tire has praised the #gitiracing all-female team after securing their first class win at the Nürburgring 24-Hour. Racing in the Giti Tire Motorsport by WS Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4, the team beat a competitive Lexus RCF after driver Carrie Schreiner secured pole with a 9:19.646-minute lap of the Nordschleife. Following a lengthy delay due to fog, Célia Martin set a fastest lap of 9:11.605 as the team completed 52 laps, finishing in 45th place overall. 121 cars started the race, with 99 finishing in extremely challenging conditions.
Yokohama is supplying its Advan racing tyres to seven cars entered by four teams in the 49th Nürburgring 24-Hour Endurance Race (3-6 June). Supported teams include Walkenhorst Motorsport, a BMW customer racing team that entered into a partnership agreement with Yokohama Rubber last year. Four Walkenhorst machines will run on Advan tyres, including three BMW M6 GT3 cars competing in the top-level SP9 class. The cars will use the Advan A005 for dry conditions and the A006 for wet conditions.
Toyo Tire is heading to the Nürburgring for the 49th ADAC Total 24H Race on 3-6 June 2021. The Japanese tyre manufacturer will supply specially developed tyres to Novel Racing, following up its entry in the delayed 2020 edition of the race for which it signed a partnership agreement with Toyo. Toyo developed its new rubber for Novel’s Lexus RC F and Toyota Supra GT4, entries tuned by Nürburgring based Ring Racing, which has been building cars for the circuit for more than a decade.
Falken Motorsports will continue its unbroken run of appearances since 1999 at the ADAC TOTAL 24h Race on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife in two identical Porsche 911 GT3 R. On 3-6 June 2021, the tyre brand’s motorsport team will contest the formidable endurance race with a top-class line-up of drivers. Lance David Arnold, Klaus Bachler, Thomas Preining and Dirk Werner will compete in the #33 car. Sven Müller, Alessio Picariello, Martin Ragginger and Klaus Bachler (again) will compete in the #44 car. Bachler is anticipating a busy weekend as he takes stints in both Falken cars.
The current season is Michelin’s ninth consecutive year with the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC), and it has developed a new range of tyres for the headlining Le Mans Hypercar class which replaces LMP1 as the premier class in 2021. All five cars competing in Le Mans Hypercar this year race on Michelin Pilot Sport tyres that were developed almost entirely created using virtual tools.
Goodyear’s inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) campaign in 2020 was the prelude to a new era for the brand in the series. Goodyear is an official championship partner supplying every car in the LMP2 prototype category this season, which begins at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, on Saturday 1 May with a six-hour race. In its comeback season to top-level motorsport, its first action at this level in two decades, Goodyear’s tyres were victorious in Shanghai and Bahrain, and achieved a memorable double podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It has been nearly two years since the Goodyear brand’s reintroduction to motorsport in Europe, and it is fair to say that operating in a pandemic was not part of the plan when this brand strategy was set out. Tyres & Accessories spoke to Ben Crawley, Goodyear motorsport director EMEA, about his experiences of the 2020 season. Goodyear re-entered European motorsport almost two years ago. While the brand on a global level has “never really been out of motorsport,” bearing in mind its six continuous decades of NASCAR in the USA, Crawley tells T&A that the thinking behind Goodyear’s reentry in more global series “fits into a wider brand rejuvenation” strategy. “We know we have this fantastic legacy and history in racing, and we want to be able to use that to reengage and provide some excitement for the brand and how we communicate the brand with consumers.” The motorsport strategy also coincided with Goodyear’s introduction of ultra-ultra-high performance (UUHP) Eagle F1 Supersport tyres, and “the natural synergies that come with high performance tyres for the road and racing.” Beyond the new product range, the “brand rejuvenation strategy includes the Blimp, racing, and broader advertising and marketing partnerships,” Crawley adds. Subscribers can view the video of this interview in the full version of this article.
Pirelli supplied its new range of GT tyres to the 2020 Spa 24 Hours, the manufacturer’s “biggest event of the year.” In total Pirelli took 13,000 tyres to the Belgian circuit in a fleet of 34 trucks, with more than 65 tyre fitters working round the clock, underlining the tyre manufacturer’s long-standing commitment to GT racing. The rescheduled event produced a thrilling competition, with multiple changes of weather and lead. The winner was only decided in the closing minutes.
All four Giti Tire Motorsport cars achieved top three finishes in their classes at the Nürburgring 24-Hour. Terrible overnight weather at the Eifel circuit saw the race suspended for nine hours, and only 70 of the 97-car grid make it to the finish. Giti said that tyre management proved decisive in helping teams overcome challenging conditions. The Giti Tire Motorsport by WS Racing Audi R8 LMS GT4 finished first in the SP8 class, while the Volkswagen Golf VII GTI Clubsport came in third in the VT2 class. In the SP3T class the trailblazing #gitiracing all-female racing team finished third in their Volkswagen Golf VII GTI TCR, overcoming a race crash and garage repairs to finish.
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