Yokohama kick-offs 2010 ALMS season at Sebring

The green flag drops on the 2010 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) March 18 in Sebring, Florida, and Yokohama Tire Corporation is ready to roll.

After a highly competitive ALMS season in '09, Yokohama is partnering with a new team in the GT2 class and is broadening its "eco racing" program by upgrading its orange oil-infused race tires in the Patrón GT3 Challenge by Yokohama series and the GT Challenge class within ALMS.

"Last year at Sebring we introduced our ADVAN ENV-R1(tm) slick in the GT3 Challenge series," said Mark Chung, Yokohama director, corporate strategy and planning. It was the first environmentally-friendly tire used in any racing series.

"This year we'll have a new tire that's not only faster and grips better, but will have even more orange oil and natural rubber in it, further reducing the petroleum use in the tire. The orange oil technology in the original ENV-R1 cut petroleum inputs by 15 percent while performing at the same - or better - level as regular racing compounds. We had nothing but positive feedback from Porsche GT3 racers last season, and the new Earth-friendly tire will be even better."

Chung said Yokohama will once again be the spec tire in the Patrón GT3 Challenge by Yokohama series, and will also campaign in the new ALMS GT Challenge (GTC) Class. A field of approximately 10 GTC Class cars will compete at all ALMS events, including endurance races, such as the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans. For details, visit http://www.imsaracing.net/.

The seven-race Patrón GT3 Challenge, which Yokohama is sponsoring for the second straight year, features a fleet of Porsche 911 GT3 race cars competing at leading U.S. tracks, including Sebring, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta.  Once again, there will be a field of up to 35 cars vying for championships in two divisions: Platinum (for 2010 GT3 Porsches only) and Gold (2005½ - 2009 GT3 Porsches). For details, visit http://www.imsachallenge.com/ .

The latest news this season in ALMS GT2 is that Yokohama and JaguarRSR are partnering to field a Jaguar XKR entry, which will run on Yokohama ADVAN A005 racing slicks. The No. 75 machine will be piloted by Trans-Am racing legend Paul Gentilozzi and sports car veterans Marc Goossens and Ryan Dalziel. They'll be battling against the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Corvette, Viper and Ford.

The nine-race GT2 series travels to many top venues, including Sebring and Road Atlanta, where Yokohama is the "Official Tire." For details, visit http://www.americanlemans.com/ .