Looking at the P-WRC and Junior championshipPart three of BFGoodrich's look back on the first half of the season.
The Production World Championship
With three brands (BFGoodrich, Pirelli and Yokohama) going head to head on a regular basis, this is a highly competitive
championship for tyre manufacturers. BFGoodrich currently tops the points table with Japan's Toshihiro Arai (Subaru) after scoring a one-two finish on the most punishing round of the year, the Acropolis Rally.
Note that run-flat mousse is not permitted in this championship. Given the high number of runners and partners it has in the WRC, BFGoodrich was unable to meet all the requests it received from P-WRC competitors.
As a consequence, the American brand works with just a few partners, although the latter are supplied with 'evolution' tyres for what is a highly competitive arena. The products in question are in fact the same as those used two years ago by the WRC cars. For the second half of the season, BFGoodrich's P-WRC partners should have a new-generation tyres for the championship's gravel rounds.
At the season's mid-point, BFGoodrich dominates the standings in association with Toshi Arai. After collecting second places in Portugal and Argentina, the Japanese driver won the recent Acropolis Rally to pull out a cushion of 14 points. Greece was a particularly challenging event for the P-WRC tyres which are not allowed to run with mousse inserts.
Even so, BFGoodrich runners succeeded in monopolising the top four places at one point with Arai, Andreas Aigner (Mitsubishi), Juho Hanninen (Subaru) and Armindo Araujo (Mitsubishi). However, Hanninen (steering, then brakes) and Araujo (engine) were both later eliminated, but with a score of 13 fastest times from 21 stages BFGoodrich came through the weekend with flying colours, including victory and a one-two finish (Arai + Aigner). The next round is the Rally New Zealand at the end of August.
FIA Junior Championship
For the second year in a row, BFGoodrich is an official partner of the Junior Championship which is aimed at talented up-and-coming youngsters.
BFGoodrich has put up a prize-fund of €50,000 for the most successful competitors to share at the end of the year. Drivers can enter with one of three categories of car (S1600, R3 and R2), while the tyres they use come from BFGoodrich's competition catalogue and are freely available on the market. With a score of two wins and one second place to his name, Sweden's PG Andersson (Suzuki Swift) currently leads the series, although the equally consistent Estonian Urmo Aava (Suzuki Swift) is only four points behind.
As is the case in the WRC, the FIA Junior Championship takes in three different types of terrain, namely snow (Norway), gravel (Portugal and Sardinia) and asphalt, which is the type of surface competitors will face on the last three rounds of the year (Germany, Corsica and Spain). With the exception of a stud problem on the tyres of Shaun Gallagher (Citroën C2) in Norway, which was solved after the opening leg, and a number of punctures on the gravel rounds (inevitable because these small cars follow the four-wheel drive machines which tend to drag rocks and stones onto the stages), the field has found BFGoodrich's products to be perfectly satisfactory. The next round is the Rally Finland at the beginning of August.
Press Release BFGoodrich
