Dunlop Tires Carry BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team to Another Podium Finish in ALMS Action
AKRON, Ohio, July 24, 2009 -- In its debut season in
American Le Mans Series (ALMS) racing, Dunlop Tires and the BMW Rahal
Letterman Racing Team notched another strong performance at the recent
Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. The team finished
in third place in the GT2 class, with drivers Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand
sharing duties.
The two drivers completed 166 laps around the Lime Rock
circuit to mark the third podium finish in the first five races of the
2009 ALMS season for the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team.
In post-race remarks, Martin Birkmann, BMW of North America Motorsport
Manager, commented, "The BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team continues on
its quest for top honors in the ALMS GT2 class. Currently, there are two
key development areas: tires and suspension. With Dunlop, we have a
development group that focuses solely on our vehicle concept, which, with
its 50/50 weight distribution and front engine layout, differs from the
majority of the competitors. The progress shows in the ever-improving
pace and endurance. The thoroughness of the effort might be highlighted
with the Lime Rock setup, where we ran the race with three different
compounds on the four tires of each car."
From Bobby Rahal, president of Rahal Letterman Racing: "Scoring our
third podium of the year with a first-year program is a testament to the
dedication of our team and all involved, and our result at Lime Rock Park
is a direct example of how hard Dunlop has worked in building a great
tire. Dunlop brought a number of great ideas to our test at Mid-Ohio
prior to Lime Rock, and continued developing throughout the race weekend
to provide a competitive tire that allowed our BMW to bring home another
trophy."
According to Razvan Bosomoiu, Dunlop brand general manager, "This is an
important platform to highlight Dunlop tires in motorsports, as it shows
the ability of our brand to compete at the highest level. An extension
of the relationship between Dunlop and the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing
Team included a recent visit by media and tire retailers to a team test
session to showcase the racing efforts. Overall, racing participation is
a good collaborative opportunity to enhance the performance of Dunlop
tires, extending track learnings to the development of consumer tires."
The BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team selected Dunlop as its
official race tire supplier for the 2009 ALMS season. The highly
anticipated return of BMW to professional production car racing coincides
with the ALMS' 10th season of world-class sports car racing.
Another Dunlop-supplied team, the Corsa Motorsports hybrid electric race
car, took home third place honors in the P1 class and third overall in
competition at Lime Rock. This marked the debut race of the season in
ALMS for the car.
The next race of the 10-event season, the Acura Sports Car Challenge,
will take place on August 8 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in
Lexington, OHH.
-credit: dunlop tires
