“A result of relentless development towards endurance and performance”

Dunlop dominated the latest round of the American Le Mans Series at Lime Rock this weekend with two pole positions and two wins.

In both the Le Mans Prototype (LMP) class and the GT category, Dunlop equipped cars locked-out the first two positions on the starting grid in each class. This dominance was confirmed in the gruelling 2h 45m race, where Dunlop underlined the consistency and durability of their latest endurance race tyres by clinching victory in both categories.

In the fastest LMP class, the Lola-Mazda of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith won by nearly 20 seconds. This was a landmark victory, that celebrated the 20^th anniversary of Dunlop and Mazda winning the Le Mans 24 hours together. In GT, the BMW M3 of Joey Hand and Dirk Müller took the win by a similar margin.

The combination of Hand, Müller, Dunlop and BMW is proving dominant in the GT class this year as this was the combination’s third consecutive win, confirming their lead in the manufacturer, team and driver championship. Bobby Rahal, Team principal, added, “It’s another great day for BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dunlop did a super job for us again”

Dunlop has been BMW’s Official Technical Partner since the launch of the M3 GT2 program and the investment in tyre development, at Fort Dunlop in Birmingham, England, has contributed towards the partnership becoming a major force globally in endurance racing. In addition to the leadership in American racing, the partnership has achieved podium finishes in the Le Mans 24 hours and the Nurburgring 24 hours this year.

Sanjay Khanna, Managing Director, Dunlop Brand EMEA, stated “Dunlop focuses on endurance racing to build longer lasting tyres for road performance. Many of these technologies, including our compound and construction design, are inspired by the learnings from this racing programme. Our recent successes are a result of relentless development towards endurance and performance in our Motorsport design and manufacturing centre. I’m proud of the team’s success, and there is further investment planned to sustain, and build on, this success”

Driver quote:

Guy Smith, G Oil / Modspace/ ConstructCorps Lola-Mazda:

” It is fantastic to win our first ALMS race of the season in the G Oil / Modspace/ ConstructCorps Lola-Mazda, and to do it the team’s home circuit couldn’t be be better. I really feel that the Dunlop tyres made the difference today. We were able to run fastest lap after fastest lap and pull away from the Muscle Milk Aston Martin. The tyres’ performance and durability was exceptional and allowed us to carve our way through the traffic on the busy Lime Rock circuit. The tyres just got better and better over a stint.  We were able to run very close to our pole-winning qualifying pace towards the end of the race and that was hugely satisfying.”

The American Le Mans Series resumes at Mosport, Canada, on July 24^th. The next round of the Le Mans Series in Europe is at Silverstone on September 11^th.