Dunlop is in action in Japan for one of the biggest challenges of the FIM Endurance World Championship – the world famous Suzuka 8 Hours on July 28-31.

Dunlop tyres will be the most prevalent in the gruelling test on one of the world’s most challenging race circuits, with 31 out of the 52 entered teams using Dunlop rubber. The Dunlop brand is part-owned by Japanese company Sumitomo Rubber Industries and illustrating the multi-national make-up of the endeavour, the tyres for this event will be produced in both Japan and in the United Kingdom, at Dunlop Motorsport’s Birmingham base.

Suzuka is one of the most difficult permanent circuits in the world to master. Owned by Honda and located in the Mei Prefecture, it represents 5.81 km of testing turns and suspension-upsetting undulations.

“The Suzuka 8 Hours is right up there with the biggest races Dunlop competes in all year,” says Dunlop Motorsport Service Engineer, Peter Chapman.

“As a round of the Endurance World Championship it has a very different complexion to any other as there are significant entries from the works Japanese manufacturers which are only entered in this race, and not in the overall championship.

“This means that we face very tough competition in the form of specialist Suzuka-specific bikes from the Japanese manufacturers which are based on MotoGP and World Superbike machines with factory support and very strong rider line-ups.

“We expect up to a dozen of these Suzuka-specials, so for a permanent EWC team to break into the top ten will be a real achievement.”

As if the challenge of the competition was not enough, there’s the track itself to consider.

“Suzuka has it all, and it’s one of the most difficult tracks to master for rider, team and tyre designer alike,” says Chapman.

“There’s a lot of gradient, with downhill and off camber corners where a rider has to have complete faith in their tyres and the grip they deliver. The entry to Spoon corner for example is quite hellish to say the least!

“It’s very much a handling circuit so getting the correct tyre, rider, bike and team balance is essential, which offers us a significant challenge for tyre selection. Our objective is to enable a sufficiently wide operating window to deliver the right results.”

Dunlop tyres feature on two front-running EWC-entered teams, firstly the reigning EWC champions and long-time Dunlop partners, Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) with Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle and Daisaku Sakai and the Honda TT Legends team with John McGuinness, Keith Amor and Donald Cameron.

With the variety of conditions encountered during the course of a race, endurance racing at suzuka offers Dunlop a very strong proving ground for its race to road motorcycle tyre technology, enabling such advancements as NTEC and Multi-Tread.

“You can get high temperatures here of around 50 degrees, which is at the extreme of our operating window,” explains Chris Valentine, Senior Tyre Engineer (Motorcycle Race) Dunlop Motorsport.

“On top of this there is a relatively abrasive surface allied to the famous figure of eight layout. This layout does create even wear on both sides of the tyres, but it is certainly a track of extreme energy inputs with high ambient and track temperatures likely, and high speeds attained through the fast corners, there are very significant loads through both sides of both the front and rear tyres.

“In addition, there are sections where high braking energy is employed at the end of the straights, where front tyre design is crucial to cope with these significant brake loadings. All in all, we have our work cut out.”

In Japan the Suzuka 8 Hours is a significant event. “Due to the great earthquake and tsunami which hit eastern Japan on March 11 and the resultant electricity saving, the schedule of the race has changed this year,” explains Toshiaki Ueda, General Manager, Motor Sports Dept, Sumitomo Rubber Industries.

“The race will start at 10:30 and the chequered flag will be waved at 18:30. This is only the second time in the history of the race that there has been a change to the schedule, In 1982, the flag was waved only 6 hours after the race had started because of a typhoon.

“For Dunlop, we are proud to supply 31 of the 52 teams entered at Suzuka this year – 60% of the field.”

The Suzuka 8 Hours, round three of the FIM Endurance World Championship, starts with practice on Thursday 28^th July, followed by qualifying on Friday and further practice on Saturday. The race starts at 10:30 AM local time on Sunday 31^st July, finishing eight hours later.