Dunlop Tyres are reporting success in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) – with the introduction of their new high-performance Dunlop Sport Maxx Soft tyre.
This is one of the greatest changes in recent times for the series, with the tyre being used in one of the three races as nominated by the driver, giving a significant performance advantage.
BTCC organisers, TOCA, set Dunlop a goal of providing an option tyre which gives a minimum one-second per lap performance advantage for the initial laps, as a contrast to the standard (Sport Maxx Medium) tyre which is proven to offer consistent performance throughout the race. It was intended that tyre strategy would become part of the overall driver strategy and add to the excitement of the racing. This was certainly prevalent at the first round at Brands Hatch over Easter weekend.
Dunlop say: "The opening round of the Championship saw the soft tyre race debut and all expectations were met. Of the nine podium places, drivers on the soft tyres took three. Rob Austin stole the headlines in race one by charging from seventh on the grid to take the lead on his set of soft tyres before dropping back, however he still finished third. He set the fastest lap of the race on lap twelve of 27.
Matt Neal won the final race on soft tyres having started fourth, while perhaps the most commendable performance on the soft compound was from Gordon Shedden who finished the same race in second having started from the back of the grid in 25th place."
Alan Gow, BTCC Administrator & Series Director said: "Dunlop really delivered with this new tyre - it performed exactly how we wanted it to. But, to be honest, it's exactly what I expected from the great team at Dunlop Motorsport....their expertise and enthusiasm is second-to-none."
James Bailey, Director, Marketing and Communications, Dunlop Motorsport Europe said: "The new tyre uses a compound from the endurance racing range. While the regular Dunlop Sport Maxx is renowned for its wide operating window, the soft option has a ‘sweet-spot’ that is more focussed. Being derived from endurance racing, even after the tyre has peaked it still retains a high level of performance.
"We have had a great deal of success in the endurance world with the compounds from which the BTCC soft tyre is derived. While Dunlop has taken 34 overall wins out of 80 at the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours, LMP2 is currently the most competitive class. Dunlop has won in LMP2 in 2011 with the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup and 2012 in the successor World Endurance Championship. 2013 would be our hat-trick. We would also be taking a Le Mans LMP2 hat-trick if we win there as well.
“As ever we will listen to feedback from TOCA and drivers as the season progresses and we encounter different tracks and conditions."
Interesting BTCC times!
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