photo by John Thawley

As the American Le Mans Series heads to Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, the eighth stop of the 2008 American Le Mans Series, championship battles are in full swing and tires are a key part of the championship.

Tires have played a key role in the resurgence of the Audi R10 turbo-diesels. Victories at temporary circuits in St. Petersburg and Long Beach with the new MICHELIN “street soft” tires have been followed by success at Mid-Ohio and Wisconsin’s Road America with more traditional MICHELIN® tire options.

While Audi and drivers Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner have LMP1 class championships in sight, it is a much different story in the LMP2 class. There it is Porsche vs. Acura for manufacturer honors; Penske Racing vs. Patrón Highcroft Racing for the team title and Penske’s Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard vs. Highcroft’s David Brabham and Scott Sharp for the driver titles. As the pairs of Porsche RS Spyders of Penske Racing and Dyson Racing tend to take a different route on MICHELIN tire selection than the four-pronged Acura attack from Andretti Green Racing; Lowe’s Fernandez Racing; Patrón Highcroft Racing and the newest team, de Ferran Motorsports, tire choices may well determine the outcome.

On the GT side of the ALMS paddock, the Corvette of Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen is poised to take back the GT1 title from teammates Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin. The GT2 class is in a heated battle as Porsche tries to wrestle the GT2 manufacturer crown back from Ferrari, while the Flying Lizard Porsche and surprising Tafel Racing Ferrari have each claimed three wins to date. Two of the Tafel Ferrari wins (Long Beach and Mid-Ohio) came as a result of double-stinting their MICHELIN tires.

Michelin is the technical partner of choice for the Audi; Penske and Dyson Porsches; Andretti Green, Lowe’s Fernandez, Patrón Highcroft and de Ferran Acuras; Corvette; Flying Lizard and Farnbacher Loles Porsches; and the Tafel and Risi Competizione Ferraris.

Here at Mosport, the oldest and one of the fastest circuits in North America, tire selection is especially important as each team must select the right MICHELIN tire compound and construction option to match their strategy for the 2-hour 45-minute race over the hilly, fast, 2.549-mile track.

“Mosport is very tough on tires,” said Karl Koenigstein, Michelin motorsports technical team leader for ALMS. “The high speeds and eight right turns abuse the outside (left side) tires. If a team plans to change tires on each stop, they may go with a softer (medium compound) option. They will sacrifice about 12-15 seconds in the pits and in track position to change tires under the green flag. If a team wants to double-stint, they will likely go with a harder compound to provide durability to run consistent laps in an extended run or double-stint. The ALMS field has gotten much deeper and closer both in the prototypes and in the GT2 class, so the teams are very aggressive and are looking to gain any advantage by mixing and matching tire options and strategies,” said Koenigstein.

MICHELIN HEAD OF THE CLASS
Michelin swept all four classes at all 12 ALMS races in 2007 and has gone undefeated in 2008 ALMS competition to post a perfect 76 class wins in that span. Michelin currently has 269 total ALMS class wins. Michelin also has 92 of 95 ALMS overall wins, including 42 consecutive overall ALMS race wins, an ALMS record dating back to the 2004 Mosport race.