Endurance World Championship

Michelin 21 May 2010

The 2010 FIM Endurance World Championship comprises five rounds.
The two best-known races - Le Mans and the Bol d'Or - are 24-hour events, while the three others last eight hours. According to the type of race, each team enters two or three riders who share the same machine.

This discipline currently has the wind in its sails, since a record 31 permanent teams have signed up for this year's EWC.
The field marks the return to the grids of SERT (Suzuki Endurance Racing Team) - which has won the title several times in the past - and GMT94, while BMW has joined the championship with a works entry.
There promises to be a fierce fight between tyre manufacturers, too, with Michelin facing competition from three other brands.

Only the permanent so-called 'Formula EWC' teams fight for the world title.
The others compete in the Superstock class for the FIM Cup. Permanent teams must contest every round, with the exception of the 8 Hours of Suzuka.

Michelin’s commitment to the EWC

After a break of several years from the Endurance World Championship, Michelin decided in 2009 that the time was right to return to the discipline, and its comeback was rewarded with the title at the end of the year in association with YART (Yamaha Austria Racing Team).

The programme enables Michelin to boost its own in-house tyre testing work, and endurance racing is seen as a valuable laboratory for the development of future road tyres. The competition's format involves long stints of almost an hour, and a single event can be marked by a wide range of weather conditions.

As a result, Michelin's engineers focus on versatility, in addition to outright performance. Michelin's partners in 2010 are the defending champions YART and the works BMW-Michelin operation.

Last but not least, the MICHELIN Power Research Team (MPRT) will contest the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Bol d'Or.

Michelin’s partners

Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART)

A magnificent season in 2009 saw YART pocket four race wins from six starts on its way to claiming its first ever Endurance World Championship title.

The YART bike is racing on Michelin tyres for the second year running and features the same line-up of three riders - Igor Jerman (35), Steve Martin (42) and Gwen Giabbani (38) - as it attempts to defend its crown against an even more competitive field.
The Austrian squad was founded in 2001 and is managed by Mandy Kainz.

Team Racing BMW MICHELIN

As part of the sales drive for its latest hyper sport model, BMW has decided to contest the full Endurance World Championship with the S1000RR.

The team is managed by team manager Bernard Rigoni, while the bike will be shared between Sébastien Gimbert, Erwan Nigon and Sébastien Charpentier

Team Racing BMW MICHELIN is targeting a top-three finish for its first Endurance World Championship campaign.

Endurance racing tyres

Versatility

In an endurance race, no matter whether it lasts eight or 24 hours, riders must have tyres that are versatile enough to cope with a wide variety of weather conditions and temperatures. In addition to providing maximum grip, they must have a wide operating range, plus sufficient durability to cover one or more stints.

Michelin’s range

As well as the 17-inch slick which is available to Superstock riders, Michelin's Endurance World Championship range also features 16-inch front slicks and 16.5-inch rears.

These tyres benefit from the vast experience Michelin has gained in the course of its many years at the forefront of motorcycle racing, and are a perfect match for the demands of endurance racing:

quick warm-up to give the rider confidence, particularly during night-time stints;
a wide enough operating range to limit the number of different tyre-types required, thereby simplifying the teams' strategies;
and, of course, sufficient durability to enable the riders to lap consistently, which is an indispensable building block when it comes to challenging for victory.