Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations Announces Alliance With DeltaWing Racing Cars For 2013 Season
Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (Bridgestone Americas) today announced its 2013 alliance with DeltaWing Racing Cars as a one-car entry in the 2013 American Le Mans Series. Bridgestone will supply Potenza tires for the select races in which DeltaWing chooses to compete during the 2013 ALMS season.
The DeltaWing features the racing performance of contemporary Le Mans race cars, but is differentiated by its far better efficiency, consuming only half of the fuel and tires of today’s more traditional race cars, and using only half of the power, aerodynamic drag and weight. In recent months, the car has received a number of awards and accolades. Autosport Magazine awarded the DeltaWing its “Pioneering and Innovation Award,” and Popular Science presented the DeltaWing with its “Best of What’s New” Award.
“This relationship offers an exceptional opportunity for us to innovate toward DeltaWing’s goal of high performance and efficiency,” said Al Speyer, Executive Director of Motorsports, Bridgestone Americas. “We were eager to step in when the opportunity opened up for us to support DeltaWing. We love challenges that drive us forward and separate us from the competition, and we’re excited to be part of the team.”
Originally created as a potential new IndyCar of the future, the DeltaWing first was funded by longtime IndyCar team owner Chip Ganassi. Although IndyCar ultimately decided to stay with a traditional Dallara design, the DeltaWing race car continues to thrive in sports car racing, running last year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“We’re thrilled to have Bridgestone on board, as 2013 promises to be an exciting year for the DeltaWing,” said Don Panoz, managing partner, DeltaWing. “In addition to running on Bridgestone tires this year, we’ll be using a new 1.9-liter, twin-turbo engine derived from Mazda’s MZR power plant, and we’re unveiling a closed-top version of the car in May. Plus, starting at Sebring, we’ll be earning points in the P1 category.”
To find out more about Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, visit http://www.bridgestonetire.com/. To find out more about the DeltaWing, visit http://www.deltawingracing.com/About Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations:
Nashville, Tenn.-based Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO) is a business unit of Bridgestone Americas, Inc., whose parent company, Bridgestone Corporation, is the world’s largest tire and rubber company. Reporting into the BATO business unit are the company’s Latin American tire operations; the U.S. and Canadian consumer tire businesses; the U.S. and Canadian commercial tire businesses; and Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC, which operates the largest network of company-owned automotive service providers in the world. BATO develops, manufactures and markets Bridgestone, Firestone and associate brand tires. The business unit is focused on retail, wholesale and original equipment markets, supplying passenger, light truck, commercial vehicle, off road, motorcycle, agricultural and other tires to its customers in the Americas. In addition, through its Bridgestone Bandag Tire Solutions unit, retreading customers have access to industry-leading research and development, manufacturing, marketing and sales expertise, providing them with a total tire solution.