Yokohama's Support for Motor Sports in 2020
12 Mar 2020

Tokyo – The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., today announced its plans for supporting motor sports events in 2020. The technology strategy outlined in the Company’s current medium-term management plan, the Grand Design 2020 (GD2020), positions participation in motor sports activities as crucial to Yokohama Rubber’s effort to be at the vanguard of the development of new tyre technologies. In 2020, we therefore will once again be participating in a wide variety of events in Japan and elsewhere around the globe, from the top-category races to grassroots races. In addition to supporting our pursuit of the most advanced technologies, our enthusiastic and active participation in motor sports enables us to contribute to the further development of the motor sports market. This release briefly introduces some of the main events Yokohama Rubber will be participating in this year.

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ADVAN racing tyres supplied for the Japanese SUPER FORMULA Championship

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Formula Races

Japanese SUPER FORMULA Championship

YOKOHAMA tyres have been the control tyres for the Japanese SUPER FORMULA Championship since 2016, and we will be supplying our ADVAN racing tyres again in 2020. The ADVAN A005 will be used in races run on dry tracks and the ADVAN A006 will be used on wet tracks. Again this year, supplied tyre sizes will be 270/620R13 for front tyres and 360/620R13 for rear tyres.

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Japanese SUPER FORMULA Championship (2019)

Japanese SUPER FORMULA LIGHTS Championship

We will be providing our ADVAN racing tyres as the control tyre for the Japanese SUPER FORMULA LIGHTS Championship series. This is a new series starting from 2020 as the successor to the previous Japanese Formula 3 Championship series that became known as the “Gateway to becoming a top driver”. We will supply the ADVAN A005 for use in races run on dry tracks and the ADVAN A006 for use on wet tracks. The supplied tyre sizes will be 200/50VR13 for front tyres and 240/45VR13 for rear tyres.

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Dallara 320 machine used in the Japanese SUPER FORMULA LIGHTS Championship

Super-FJ

Yokohama Rubber will again supply its ADVAN racing tyres as the control tyre for Japan’s Super-FJ Formula racing series, a domestic regional championship established by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF). The annual series includes races held at major circuits throughout Japan, from Tohoku in the north to Kyushu in the south.

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GT Touring Car Races

SUPER GT

SUPER GT races are contested in two classes, GT500 and GT300. GT500 is dominated by works teams from major automakers while GT300 teams tend to be more varied and individualistic. GT500 machines have been unified with the Class 1 specifications commonly used with the Germany’s Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM, German Touring Car Masters) series. GT300 races feature competition by a variety of cars made in Japan and overseas. The machines can broadly be divided into three types: (1) automakers’ production cars that meet the international FIA GT3 specifications, (2) unique JAF-GT machines, and (3) the so-called “Mother Chassis" group of machines. As in 2019, Yokohama Rubber will support three teams competing in the GT500 races (see table). We will also support several teams competing in the GT300 races. In 2020, the SUPER GT series will again consist of eight races, including two overseas—one in Thailand and the other in Malaysia, which returns to the series for the first time in seven years. All the events are expected to attract huge crowds of avid racing fans.

GT500 Teams

Nürburgring 24-hour Endurance Race

Yokohama Rubber will supply its tyres to a number of teams competing in this endurance race run on the Nürburgring course, widely considered to be one of the world’s most demanding race courses. Again this year, KONDO RACING and the Walkenhorst team racing in BMW machines will be aiming for victory on YOKOHAMA tyres. KONDO RACING competed in its first Nürburgring 24-hour Endurance Race in 2019 and finished ninth overall, the highest result achieved by a Japanese team. Supplied tyres will be the ADVAN A005 for races run in dry conditions and the ADVAN A006 for wet conditions.

KONDO Racing
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KONDO RACING’s NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3 (2019)

TCR Regional and National Series

Yokohama Rubber will again supply its ADVAN racing tyres as the control tyre for TCR (touring car race) regional and national series held in countries around the world. In addition to the TCR Japan Series, the TCR Europe and TCR Easter Europe regional races will be run on YOKOHAMA tyres, as well such national TCR series as TCR Iberico, TCR Benelux,TCR Germany, TCR Scandinavia and TCR Russia. The control tyres being supplied for all series are the ADVAN A005 for dry tracks and the ADVAN A006 for wet tracks, with sizes for both being 250/660R18.

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TCR Japan Series (2019)

Other races using YOKOHAMA tyres as control tyres

In addition to the above races, Yokohama Rubber will supply its ADVAN racing tyres to teams competing in a number of other races around the world. In North America, our tyres will be supplied for the Porsche Sprint Trophy USA West, Porsche Sprint Trophy USA West Invitational, and the Porsche Air-Cooled Cup USA series for the first time in 2020, extending our partnership with Porsche, which also includes supplying the control tyres for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge CANADA. Meanwhile, in Japan, ADVAN racing tyres will be used in Inter Proto Series races.

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Other Races

Off-road races

YOKOHAMA again will supply its GEOLANDAR tyres for SUVs and pickup trucks to teams participating in off-road races around the world, including desert races in North America and the Asia Cross Country Rally in Southeast Asia.

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Toyota Fortuner driven by Takuma Aoki in the Asia Cross Country Rally (2019)

Kart races

YOKOHAMA will continue supporting teams competing in the top-level OK class of the All Japan Karting Championship, the country’s premier kart racing series. Teams and drivers will be using YOKOHAMA tyres to support their quest for victory in 2020. In addition, YOKOHAMA will again support the FP-Junior Cadets category of the Japanese Junior Karting Championship by supplying our ADVAN SLJ (ADJ) tyres as the control tyre for use on dry tracks.
Overseas, we again will be supplying the control tyre for the Asian Karting Open Championship, as well as tyres for circuit races in the Philippines and other countries.

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Croc Promotion kart driver Sotaro Mimura (2019)

Yokohama Rubber continues to be an enthusiastic supporter of racing teams competing in events across all motor sports categories and in countries around the world. The data gathered from the use of YOKOHAMA tyres under the demanding conditions of motor sports contributes to our development of tyres for everyday drivers around the world. News updates and results of many of the races noted above will be posted on YOKOHAMA’s motor sports website, the Yokohama Rubber Channel on YouTube and other social networking sites.

More Information

Yokohama Rubber’s Support for Motor Sports in 2020

2020-03-12 Yokohama Rubber’s Support for Motor Sports in 2020