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ALMS: Michelin to rely on Daytona and Charlotte experience at Texas Motor Speedway road course

24 August 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
(Greenville, S.C.) - Having won major sportscar endurance races in five different countries (United States, Canada, England, France and Germany) so far in 2000, Michelin is preparing to tackle yet another "foreign" venue...the brand new Texas Motor Speedway road course. While Texas is as American as pick-up trucks, the 2.5-mile road course is "foreign" to American Le Mans Series (ALMS) competitors who will be racing there on Sept. 2 because the track is so new that no one has been able to test there.

Michelin teams have conquered the previous six ALMS races this season plus the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona. At Texas, the majority of top ALMS teams will be riding on Michelin tires. The "foreign" nature of the track will be particularly challenging to tire companies.

"You have to remember that the tires are what connect the cars to the track...tires are one of the main contributors to a driver and car maximizing their performance," said Herb Johnson, director of motorsports, Michelin North America. "We have not been able to test at Texas, which we would have liked to have done at least once so that we could understand the general characteristics of the track. The first time that we will be able to test is two days before the race.

"So, we will be relying on our experience from the tracks at Daytona and Charlotte, both of which have high-banked corners and infield road courses," continued Johnson. "We won races at those tracks earlier in the year, so it's good experience. That is our baseline for Texas. We have full confidence in our engineering capability and enjoy these challenges."

Unlike NASCAR, CART and the Indy Racing League, which compete with single tire suppliers, the ALMS features a competition among several major tire manufacturers. Michelin, Avon, Dunlop, Goodyear, Pirelli and Yokohama supply tires to ALMS competitors.

In the prototype category at Texas, the Sebring and Le Mans-winning Audi team will be riding on Michelin tires, as will the 1999 Le Mans-winning BMW team plus the Panoz and Olive Garden Rafanelli teams. Team Oreca will field a pair of Michelin-shod Dodge Vipers, which not only scored its third consecutive Le Mans GTS victory in June, but also won the 24 Hours of Daytona outright in February and the 12 Hours of Sebring GTS category in March. Alex Job Racing, Dick Barbour Racing and Mike Colucci Racing will field Porsches fitted with Michelin tires in the GT category.

Michelin has won the three biggest sportscar endurance races in the world in 2000. Dodge Viper won the 24 Hours of Daytona while Audi won the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Michelin won the other five 2000 American Le Mans Series races as well...Charlotte (BMW), Silverstone (BMW), Germany (Panoz), Sears Point (Audi) and Mosport (Audi).

Michelin has won all three categories in each of the six ALMS races this season...no other tire manufacturer has scored an ALMS victory this season. The last time a non-Michelin-shod car scored a category win in an ALMS race was in October, 1999.

Michelin sits atop the season-long points battle among tire manufacturers in all three ALMS categories. In the prototype category, Michelin has scored 160 points while Yokohama has 61, Goodyear 59, Pirelli 53 and Avon 15.

Text provided by Bob Andrew

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