Dunlop Team Ready For WEC Race In Fuji
Fuji hosts the first of three FIA World Endurance Championship events in Asia and the East with the Japanese track holding the fifth of eight rounds. Weather is likely to play a part in the event but hopefully more racing will be possible than last year when rain and fog led to a 16 lap race, all of which was under the safety car.
The car that won the LMP2 class in the 2013 event, albeit with half points awarded, will make a guest appearance, the Oak Racing #35 Morgan-Judd being driven by Keiko Ihara, Gustavo Yacaman and Alex Brundle. The other two cars racing on Dunlop tyres are the KCMG Oreca and the G-Drive Ligier, both powered by Nissan engines and also in the LMP2 class, the only class with competition between tyre manufacturers. The pair are endeavoring to overhall a 50 point disadvantage after neither scored points at Le Mans. G-Drive have reduced the gap to 27 points with KCMG only a further six points behind.
The Fuji track has one of the longest straights on the calendar combined with very twisty sections. Car set-up includes camber to give drivers traction and speed through the corners so Dunlop designs the tyres to be durable and withstand the impact of camber on the long 1.5km straight. Speeds on the straight are expected to exceed 280kph, only 30kph less than the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans. For Fuji, Dunlop is nominating the medium and hard compounds. Wet and intermediate tyres will also be available for the event, which has potential for mixed weather conditions given the typhoon that is currently approaching Japan.
Dunlop Teams:
26 – G-Drive Racing, Morgan Nissan, Roman Rusinov, Olivier Pla, Julien Canal
35 – Oak Racing, Morgan Judd, Keiko Ihara, Gustavo Yacaman, Alex Brundle
47 – KCMG, Oreca 03 Nissan, Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley, Alexandre Imperatori
Dunlop has nominated the medium and hard compound slick tyres for the COTA event.
Racing Stat – How Many Corners?
The long Fuji straight may be working the tyres hard but it gives the drivers a break from the corners. This weekend the LMP2 drivers can expect to steer round in excess of 3500 corners between each trio.
Dunlop’s 2014 LMP2 Tyres – Key Points
- New rear tyre profile that complements the front profile introduced in 2013.
• All constructions are new
• New for 2014 hard and soft compounds.
• New profile and construction for full wet tyre
• New profile and groove pattern for intermediate tyre
2014 Tyre restrictions – six-hour races:
Seven sets of slick tyres, with three for practice sessions and four sets for qualifying and the race. Typically, with no major safety car periods, a dry race will see teams race three double and one single stints.
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