Racing from day to night and back to day again, in Europe, Japan and the Middle East, endurance racing is one of motorcycle racing’s most gruelling disciplines.

Dunlop’s domination of the FIM Endurance World Championship for more than a decade has been achieved in fruitful long-term partnership with the French Suzuki Endurance Racing Team.

In 2011, the team took its eleventh title, after a cliff-hanging finale, when took a crucial podium at Qatar.

This was Dunlop’s sixth title in the last seven years, and went hand in hand with yet another victory in the classic Bol d’Or 24-hour race – the 28th for Dunlop since 1969 and eleventh in a row.

For 2012, Dunlop’s partnership with the team will continue, with a number of other teams and motorcycle marques including Honda and their TT Legends squad also relying on the successful tyres for the gruelling series.

This season the championship is contested over five rounds, starting with the world-famous Bol d’Or at Magny Cours in April. Doha – the scene of mail-biting season finales for the past two years – is now the second round. The challenge of the Suzuka 8 Hours with the local manufacturer entries vying for glory marks the halfway point. Oschersleben returns after a year’s absence with an 8 hour event for the penultimate round before the championship returns to France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

With two 24-hour events this means a total of 72 hours racing, with riders, machines and tyres tested to their limits in all conditions, in daylight and darkness.

For tyre engineers, all the usual attributes are required: grip, handling, feel, consistency. But there is more. Tyres need to work effectively over a wide range of conditions – from the cold and damp of morning dew to the baking heat of the Qatari desert. And they have to operate for much longer stints than in grand prix racing.

In this way, the crucial link between race-tyre and road-tyre development is reinforced.