Dunlop tyres take to the Italian circuit of Imola for the fourth round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, which is also the third round of the Le Mans Series on July 3-5.

Just three weeks after the Le Mans 24 Hours race, where Dunlop took top honours with Greaves Motorsport in the LMP2 class, it’s a challenge of a different nature as many of the same cars which competed at Le Mans are in action once more.

From 24 Hours to 6 means a different challenge for Dunlop, and it’s not just the duration of the race, it’s the length of the course, as Imola is just 4.93 km long compared to the 13.63 km of Le Mans. In addition to the shorter distance, Imola is something of a voyage into the unknown.

“Imola is in many ways a new challenge for us,” says Jean-Felix Bazelin, Dunlop Motorsport’s General Manager.

“It is not a circuit which has an endurance racing history, and it is not a circuit which we know from our motorcycle racing activities.

“What we can say is the track is anti-clockwise in direction and the layout does not present any extreme challenges such as many fast high-load corners or have extreme braking demands.

“As Imola is new to most of the teams, our engineers will be working hard with them to determine best tyre choices for qualifying and the race and also to understand the strategy considerations.”

Ben Michell, GT Project Manager for Dunlop Motorsport explains some of the characteristics of Imola and the tyre considerations for the race.

“Our investigations have shown that the track surface is frequently quite dusty and the surface does not offer a lot of grip,” says Michell. “The demands on the front tyres are less than we see at other circuits, so graining should not be too much of a concern.

“For the rear tyres there traction is a priority for accelerating out of slow to medium speed corners. This means there is a risk of blistering due to wheelspin especially if the car set-up does not lend itself to good rear traction. The risk of blistering is increased if soft tyres are being used to offset the low grip of the track.

“A further consideration is that we could experience quite hot weather conditions in Italy at this time of year.”

Dunlop is represented across all four open tyre classes with a total of 16 cars in the LMP1, LMP2, GTE Pro and GTE Am categories.

Dunlop supplied teams

LMP1

#15 Oak Racing Pescarolo-Judd ILMC

Guillaume Moreau / Pierre Ragues

#23 MIK Corse Zytek 09 LMS

Maximo Cortes / Ferdinando Geri / Giacomo Picini

LMP2

#26 Signatech Nissan Oreca 03-Nissan ILMC

Franck Mailleux / Lucas Ordoñez / Soheil Ayari

#35 Oak Racing Pescarolo-Judd ILMC

Andrea Barlesi / Frederic Da Rocha / Patrice Lafargue

#36 RML HPD ARX-01d ILMC

Mike Newton / Tommy Erdos / Ben Collins

#40 Race Performance Oreca 03-Judd LMS

Michel Frey / Ralph Meichtry / TBA

#41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN-Nissan LMS

Karim Ojjeh / Tom Kimber-Smith / Olivier Lombard

#43 RLR MG Lola EX265-Judd LMS

Barry Gates / Rob Garofall / Simon Phillipps

#44 Extreme Limite AM Paris Norma M200P-Judd LMS

Fabien Rosier / Jean-Pierre Luco / Maurice Basso

#45 Boutsen Energy Racing Oreca 03-Nissan LMS

Dominik Kraihamer / Nicolas De Crem

#49 Oak Racing Pescarolo LMS

Jacques Nicolet / Alexandre Prémat

GTE Pro

#55 BMW Motorsport BMW M3 ILMC

Augusto Farfus / Jörg Müller

#56 BMW Motorsport BMW M3 ILMC

Dirk Werner / Pedro Lamy

#66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari F458 Italia LMS

Rob Bell / James Walker

#79 JOTA Aston Martin Vantage LMS

Sam Hancock / Simon Dolan

GTE AM

#57 Krohn Racing Ferrari F430 ILMC

Tracy Krohn / Nic Jönsson / Michele Rugolo

Action gets underway at Imola with free practice sessions on Friday 1 July, qualifying on Saturday 2 and the race itself on Sunday 7 starting at 12:00 local time.