Dunlop scored title success in the 14^th running of Petit Le Mans this weekend, with Dunlop team Signatech Nissan taking the LMP2 title of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) and BMW taking the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) manufacturer’s title for a second season.

It was a fast-paced and action-laden season finale to the ALMS, and penultimate round of the ILMC, with multiple full caution yellow flag safety car periods over the course of the 1000 miles, 394 laps and just over nine and a half hours of racing at Road Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

In the overall results, the highest finishing Dunlop car was the fourth placed #24 Oak Racing Oak Pescarolo-Judd of Jean-François Yvon, Olivier Pla and Alexandre Premat which was second of the petrol-powered runners.

“Another fantastic race with incredible action for every minute and every lap,” said Jean-Felix Bazelin, Dunlop Motorsport’s General Manager, “and what a way to round off a fantastic season for us in the American Le Mans Series.

“We have won the LMP teams’, drivers’ and tire manufacturers’ championships as well as the GT teams’, drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships which makes for a great year. And to show so strongly in the LMP1 class with Oak Racing was a superb achievement.”

In the LMP2 category, Dunlop secured a double podium with United Autosports making their debut in the #22 Oak Pescarolo-Judd with Zak Brown, Stefan Johansson and Mark Patterson finishing second. Third was the ILMC title winning #26 Signatech Nissan Oreca 03-Nissan of Franck Mailleux, Lucas Ordoñez and Jean-Karl Vernay.

In the GTE Pro category, a hard-fought race-long battle saw the #55 BMW M3 GT of Bill Auberlen, Dirk Werner and Augusto Farfus finish third, just missing out on the second which would have secured Dunlop the ALMS GT tire manufacturers’ crown by just 0.182seconds.

In the GTE Am category it was a dominant victory for locally based Krohn Racing with the #57 Ferrari F430 driven by Tracy Krohn, Niclas Jönsson and Michele Rugolo finishing two laps ahead of their nearest rival. They now move into a strong second in the ILMC standings.

“Altogether an incredible weekend to finish an incredible season in the ALMS,” said Bazelin. “To miss out on winning the GT tire title by under two tenths of a second on the final lap of the year shows how close the battle was, and it leaves us with a target for the future.”

“Now we have one race to go in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup where there is still the possibility we can win the GTE Pro class with BMW. We will put everything in place to assist them with this goal.”

Dunlop is next out in action in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup at the season concluding Zhuhai 6 Hours in China on November 12.

Team quotes:

Bill Auberlen, driver #55 BMW Motorsports BMW M3 GT

“What a difference a year makes! I keep saying: Dunlop keeps giving us better and better tyres – when does the best happen?! Dunlop still seems to pull something out of the bag, improving an already superb product; it’s amazing. To win every championship except one is such an accomplishment. Whoever wins manufacturers’, teams’ and drivers’ titles is really something. Everyone’s eyes are now on Dunlop as Dunlop has changed everybody’s mind about who produces the best tyres for the ALMS.”

Joey Hand, driver #56 BMW Motorsports BMW M3 GT

“I’ve been saying it all year long, and it’s not just something I say in front of the cameras or the microphones; Dunlop has worked great with this programme. When you look at where we started in 2009, the progress through 2010 and then where we are in 2011; coming out of the trailer at every event and being strong. This is a testament to everyone working together: BMW, Team RLL and Dunlop. I’ve worked with a lot of tyre manufacturers and I’ve never seen the amount of dedication, preparation that I’ve seen in my time working with Dunlop.”

Franck Mailleux, driver #26 Signatech Nissan Oreca 03-Nissan

“Over the season we’ve achieved a lot of podiums, we’ve had great pace, we’ve set the fastest laps in almost every race so that proves that Dunlop and our package with Signatech Nissan is really, really fast. I have mixed feelings at Petit Le Mans as we were leading the race after a third distance, everything was working well and Dunlop’s tyres allowed us to easily double stint. The strategy was looking good to win the race. At the end we finished third, but we are champions so that is not too bad!”

Lucas Ordoñez, driver #26 Signatech Nissan Oreca 03-Nissan

“Honestly, when I moved from the Playstation to racing actually on track I never realized that the tyres were such an important part of performance. I have learnt so much with Dunlop and all the team worked very hard with me to teach me about tyres, compounds and how to manage the tyres in the race. The result is the title we have won. I’m very happy about the race as our pace was so fast. We are champions and that is thanks to the Signatech Nissan team and Dunlop.”

Zak Brown, driver #22 United Autosports Oak Pescarolo-Judd

“We loved it! My team-mates did a great job, the car was very good, there were just a couple of incidents in the race otherwise United Autosports ran well and Dunlop’s tyres were great and I’m happy to be on the podium on our debut in this package.”

Stefan Johansson, driver #22 United Autosports Oak Pescarolo-Judd

“The Dunlops were great and performed perfectly all race; we probably could have four stints on the same set! They didn’t give up even a tenth over a triple stint I did early in the race and they were performing as well on their last lap that they were on their first.”

Tracy Krohn, driver #57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F430

“Whenever you win you think this is so great; and it really is great! At the end of the day everything worked, the car worked, the Dunlop tyres were flawless, we didn’t have a single puncture and no issues with the tyres at all.”

Chris Dyson, driver #16 G-OIL ModSpace/Construct Corps Lola-Mazda

“We really had a great season in 2011! The target was to win all the championships and we’ve achieved that. I couldn’t be more happy for our partners at Mazda, our sponsors G-OIL ModSpace Construct Corps, everyone at Dyson Racing, Lola, Martin Birrane and of course, my tyre partner, Dunlop. We worked so hard over the winter to develop the tyres and the performance and durability kept going up through the roof. We met and raised our opposition at every turn.”

Dunlop quotes:

Colin Johnson, Senior Analyst, Dunlop Motorsport:

“Coming fourth in LMP1 when five of the major motor manufacturer developed diesel-powered prototypes started the race was a significant achievement for us. The temperatures were much cooler than we had anticipated so much more use was made of our medium and medium-soft compounds which worked well. The last few hours saw the temperature drop very quickly with the ambient as low as 15ºC so we were kept busy reacting to this. In LMP2 the goal for Signatech was to score the points needed to take the ILMC crown, so to be so quick on pace showed the strength of the package. United Autosports showed their class to come to a new car for them and run so well over the event.”

Ben Michell, Project Manager – GT, Dunlop Motorsport:

“Petit Le Mans was a tough race. The conditions were some of the coolest for a few years which was a challenge that all tyre manufacturers had to rise to. It was fantastic for BMW to secure the manufacturers’ crown here but equally frustrating to miss out on the GT tire manufacturers’ title by such a small margin. Our goal was to assist BMW to win the team and manufacturer titles and that has been achieved. GTE Am was a fantastic race with Krohn Racing dominating, consistently running as one of the fastest cars in class.”

Michael McGregor, Dunlop Motorsport Service Engineer – Car Motorsport EU:

“To win so many titles in the third year of our project in the USA is immense. In America you really have the extremes of tracks so we worked with our teams to understand their requirements. We created new construction packages, with something which would suit the car more in America, and do something slightly different from what had been done in Europe. From this we have learnt so much which enhances our development capacity for racing and ultimately for our road products too.”