Yokohama shifts 2015 motorsports programs into high gear

Producing tires for a wide variety of racing disciplines – Red Bull Global Rallycross, sports car and off-road – Yokohama Tire Corporation’s (YTC) 2015 motorsports season is ready to roll.

“Yokohama prides itself on the breadth of our racing program and how it pushes our tire development,” said Duane Sampson, YTC manager, motorsports. “Our tires have to handle everything from road courses like Road America in Wisconsin to the rocky terrain of Baja, California to the rallycross course in Barbados.”

For the full 2015 Yokohama motorsports calendar, go to http://www.yokohamatire.com/calendar_main/. Yokohama’s racing slate includes:

Red Bull Global Rallycross
YTC enters its second year as the exclusive tire supplier of the Red Bull Global Rallycross (RBGRC), with the series expanding in 2015 from 10 races to 12. RBGRC combines the best elements of rally, stadium, circuit and off-road racing, lending itself to harrowing stunts and wheel-to-wheel competition. Cars in the series are heavily modified from their street-going counterparts, packed with all-wheel drive, 600 horsepower and Yokohama ADVAN  race tires. Star drivers include 2014 champion Joni Wiman, Tanner Foust, Scott Speed, Bucky Lasek, Travis Pastrana and Nelson Piquet Jr.
“The ADVAN tire we supply for RBGRC is a good example of our motorsport tire technology,” said Sampson. “Prior to Yokohama’s involvement, RBGRC ran bias-ply tires. Yokohama has since engineered a radial slick that could handle the rigors of extreme conditions that exist in the exciting racing format.”

The series starts May 31 in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida.
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama
Covering eight venues with 16 rounds, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama is the largest single-make Porsche series in the world. It features two classes of vehicles that race on YTC’s orange oil-infused racing slick, the ADVAN  ENV-R2 .

Porsche GT3 Cup enters its seventh consecutive season with Yokohama as its exclusive tire supplier. Semi-professional and up-and-coming drivers compete in two car classes, Platinum and Gold. The drivers will compete on some of the best tracks in the U.S., including Circuit of the Americas, Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca and NOLA Motorsports Park, a new venue near New Orleans, Louisiana, that has been added this season. The racing heats up March 18-20 at Sebring.

Off-Road Racing: SCORE & BITD
Coming off a third-place finish in the SCORE Trophy Truck division at last year’s Baja 1000, Cameron Steele and his Desert Assassins team return under Yokohama sponsorship for 2015.
Steele, a two-time SCORE Person of the Year, runs race-engineered 40-inch GEOLANDAR A/T-S  R tires mounted on his 800-horsepower No. 16 Geiser Brothers Trophy Truck. The tires are designed to endure some of the world’s harshest terrains at speeds in excess of 120 mph. For 2015, the team will focus on the major desert off-road races in North America, including the SCORE Baja 500, SCORE Baja 1000, and the Best in the Desert’s Vegas to Reno.