Tyre-maker Dunlop is celebrating a win in the American Le Mans Series GT2 Championship after agreeing a three-year deal to supply and support the BMW racing team.
Just seven races into the new partnership, Dunlop and BMW achieved their first victory, at the Elkhart Lake circuit in Wisconsin, after two 485-horsepower BMW cars finished first and second.
The tyres were made at the Fort Dunlop plant in Erdington, Birmingham, which employs more than 300 technicians and craftspeople, and makes more than 200,000 specialist tyres each year.
Dunlop race tyres are used in many race championships for cars and motorcycles, including the Le Mans 24-hour event and the Isle of Man TT races.
Phil Plater, Dunlop’s American Le Mans Series manager, said: “Since winning the contract, we have been working in conjunction with the BMW team testing both car and tyres, at circuits across Europe and the US.
“When we began testing we chose two rubber compounds to use in the tyres. After the intense development work undertaken we are now featuring six different compounds to deliver the results needed by BMW.
“We are racing and testing on a mixture of street circuits and purpose-built race tracks, so compounds need to be able to cope with a range of surfaces. We have to fine-tune the construction of the tyre to match the abilities of the car.
“It is a real team effort, with the Dunlop BMW Project Team reporting the results and findings from each race or test back to the Fort Dunlop based development team.”
