Having scored victories at every other circuit in the history of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Michelin enters the third Grand Prix of Baltimore still seeking its first overall and GT class wins in the Charm City.
The August 31 race will give Michelin the opportunity to claim the rare, elusive title.
Like the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans where Michelin has taken the last 16 consecutive overall race wins, the ALMS is one of the few series to offer open tire competition. Michelin has 135 overall race wins and 122 GT class wins in the 143 races held in the history of the series, including wins at every one of the 24 other venues.
“We would certainly like to put the Michelin Man atop the podium at Baltimore,” said Ken Payne, motorsports technical director for Michelin North America.
Michelin and its technical partners delivered strong results at the first street circuit event of the season, the Grand Prix of Long Beach, taking 1-2 finishes in both of the open Prototype classes (P1 and P2) and sweeping the top six positions in the fiercely competitive GT class.
Michelin is the technical partner for the series-leading Muscle Milk Pickett Racing Honda, the defending Baltimore P1 champions from Dyson Racing Mazda, the defending Baltimore race champion Level 5 Motorsports Honda team, and the Long Beach P2 winning Extreme Speed Motorsports team.
In GT competition, Michelin technical partners from Corvette Racing (3), BMW Team RLL (2) and SRT Viper (1) have swept wins in the first six races of the ALMS season and hold the top spots in the season championships. Michelin is also the technical partner to the Risi Competizione Ferrari and the Porsche squads from CORE autosport and Paul Miller Racing.
“At Michelin, we race to learn and we race to win,” said Payne. “We haven’t had any tire issues here; it has really been more of a combination of pit stops, race strategies, untimely caution periods and a couple of cars with mechanical issues. We look forward to a great race and a happier ending this year.”
