15
April
2018
|
16:48 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

Dunlop looking for back-to-back 24 Hour wins in 2017/18 EWC campaign

  • Pit-stops key to race success


The second round of the 2017/18 FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) will be held at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit on 21st/22nd April. The Bol d’Or was the first round of the championship, back in September 2017, with GMT94 Yamaha taking victory and Honda Endurance Racing finishing third. 30 teams have chosen to race on Dunlop tyres this week, including Dunlop partner teams Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, GMT94 Yamaha and Honda Endurance Racing.

The 24H Motos brings the opportunity for consecutive 24-hour wins for GMT94 or a Dunlop-double if one of the other Dunlop-shod teams takes the flag. NRT48 will be looking for another Dunlop Independents Trophy win following taking the top prize at the last race and Tati Team Beaujolais Racing will be hoping to extend their lead in the Endurance Cup following their convincing round one victory.

Pit-stop Precision

Endurance is all about minimising time in the pits. At the Bol D’Or, GMT94 Yamaha finished an impressive nine laps ahead of the rest and spent just 27:07 minutes in the pits, having only stopped 27 times, compared to 28 times and over 33 minutes for the runners-up.

Dunlop designs tyres to optimise durability with performance and Dunlop engineers support the teams with their choices and strategies. EWC partners Eurosport show more about the science of the pit-stop in this video:

https://youtu.be/3whjeGf9Iqk

Pit-stop Stats - 24 Hours Motos Le Mans 2017

  • 25 – fewest stops in top-10 finishers during the 24 hours of racing
  • 1233 – stops in total
  • 41:715 – least time in pits in top-10 (Suzuki Endurance Racing Team – 27 stops)
  • 41:742 – time in pits for Superstock winners (Tati Team Beaujolais – 25 stops)

Dunlop Independents’ Trophy

The 25 Dunlop Independent Trophy teams will again be eligible for the cash prizes. For the 24 Hours Moto the top-15 registered finishers will win between €700 and €5,000 with a prize fund of €30,000 available for the event.

Dunlop tyres at the 24 Hours Moto

Partner teams: 2 front tyre options & 5 rear tyre options
Private teams: 2 compounds of 120/70 R 17 KR106 front tyre (medium/hard and hard) with a choice of 4 compounds (soft, medium, medium/hard and hard) for the 205/60 R 17 KR108 rears

EWC teams are likely to double-stint the front tyre and single stint the rear tyre

Superstock teams (with a longer wheel change procedure) will generally have a four stint strategy on the front tyres and two stints on the rear.

The Le Mans 24 Hour race begins at 15.00 CEST on Saturday April 21st.

The full entry list can be found at https://www.fimewc.com/.