Dunlop tyres will take to the track for the first round of the Le Mans Series at the French circuit of Paul Ricard for the 6 Heures du Castellet on April 1-3 as Dunlop continues its preparations for the world famous Le Mans 24 hours.

Ten teams will run with Dunlop tyres for the six-hour endurance race at the punishing high-speed Paul Ricard circuit located near the village of Le Castellet on a plateau 70km north of Marseilles.

The importance of the event is not only the race itself, but the performance indicators it provides for the jewel in the crown Le Mans 24 hours which takes place in June. Teams will be testing their latest developments and collating data looking ahead to that event, and it’s the same for Dunlop.

“The Circuit Paul Ricard is a perfect test ground for the challenges we will face in the Le Mans 24hours,” explains Dunlop Motorsport General Manager, Jean-Felix Bazelin.

“The Mistral Straight is one of the longest straights on a motorsport circuit in the world, which gives us a good indicator into how the tyres will perform on the long public highway straights of the Le Mans track.

“The high speed and high load turn five right hand corner puts significant stress through the front left tyre. This is then followed by the increasing-radius turn six right-hander, putting yet more force through the tyres.

“If our front tyres perform well here, we know they should be strong for the rest of the season as Ricard is one of the biggest challenges they face all season.”

Dunlop provides tyres to all Le Mans Series classes, meaning an interesting range of requirements.

“We are supplying ten teams at Ricard,” says Bazelin, “with an LMP1 team, two thirds of the LMP2 class and at least one team in each of the GTE classes. This gives us representation throughout the field.

“For 2011 we have made improvements across the board to our tyres in terms of construction and compounds. These have not been radical changes, just evolutionary improvement. The particular interest in Ricard for us is to understand what our rivals have achieved with their developments.

“We have already been successful in endurance racing in 2011 with the opening round of the American Le Mans Series where we achieved a 1-2 in the GT class with BMW, second and third in the LMP2 class with Signatech Oreca Nissan and Oak Racing, and first in the GT Amateur category with Krohn Racing Ferrari. This was a strong start to our year and we hope to continue this level of performance in Ricard.”

In the LMP2 class at Ricard, British team RML continue a long association with Dunlop.

“When we tested at Ricard the weather wasn’t very good to us so we’ll be taking a conservative approach to tyre strategy and see how the race pans out,” says RML team manager, Phil Barker. “Dunlop are a great partner to work with, and we’re certainly looking at going for double stints between tyre changes, if not triple stints.”

Dunlop supplied teams

LMP1
#20 Quifel ASM Team Zytek 09SC
Miguel Amaral / Olivier Pla

LMP2
#36 RML HPD ARX-01d
Mike Newton / Tommy Erdos / Ben Collins

#40 Race Performance Oreca 03-Judd
Michel Frey/Ralph Meichtry/Thor-Christian Ebbesvik

#41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN-Nissan
Karim Ojjeh / Gary Chalandon / Tom Kimber-Smith

#43 RLR MG Lola EX265-AER
Barry Gates / Rob Garofall / Simon Phillips

#44 Extreme Limite AM Paris Norma M200P-Judd
Fabien Rosier / Jean-Pierre Luco / Maurice Basso

#45 Boutsen Energy Racing Oreca 03-Nissan
Dominik Kraihamer / Nicolas De Crem

GTE Pro
#66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari F458 Italia
Rob Bell / James Walker

#79 JOTA Aston Martin Vantage
Sam Hancock / Simon Dolan

GTE AM
#70 Kessel Racing Ferrari F458 Italia
Michael Broniszewski / Philipp Peter

Driver view with Thomas Erdos, driver of the #36 RML HPD ARX-01d:
“Ricard can be a difficult place for tyre choice. The first problem is choosing the correct compound which will best deal with the lack of temperature usually associated with Ricard this time of the year. Once we are able to maintain the tyre in its optimum temperature window, the pressures will remain constant and the Dunlops will be at their best. Last year we were able to double stint our tyres with minimal drop in performance. Dunlop is a great competitor and I know that, one year on, their tyres will be even stronger and I can’t wait to experience their new products.

“We will have to watch out especially for the left front tyre wear, as there is a high demand on that particular tyre, especially through turns 3 – (Virage de l’Hôtel), 6 – (Virage de la Ste Baume), 10 – (Signes) and 11 – (Double Droite).

“If it is wet, I think we are in an even stronger position, as the Dunlop wets are known for being second to none!

I can’t wait to start the season at Ricard with the AD/RML HPD number 36. Great to have the continuity we have enjoyed in our programme over the last eight years and the partnership with Dunlop is key to our success.”

Action gets underway at Ricard with free practice sessions on Friday 1st, qualifying on Saturday 2nd and the race on Sunday 3rd at 12:00 – 18:00 local time.

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