Tokyo—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced that it would support 15 cars (two GT500 class cars and 13 GT300 class cars) that will participate in the Japan GT Championship Malaysia, the fourth stage of the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, to be held on June 22 and 23 at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Yokohama's support comes in the form of supply of its racing tires and it has been doing so every year since 2000 when the Malaysian race was inaugurated in 2000.

Driving at the Sepang International Circuit requires highly skillful techniques because the 5,543- meter course consists of many consecutive steep curves in addition to the two main straight tracks. The race is expected to be extremely tough because the racing condition changes rapidly and greatly due to the track surface temperature as high as nearly 50 degrees of Celsius under fine weather and frequent squalls unique to the tropical rain forest weather. Yokohama Rubber will supply the 15 cars with a total of approximately 1,200 tires (800 for dry and 400 for wet course conditions) of a special model with enhanced cornering grip capabilities and driving stability at high speeds designed using actual data from the same race of the last year.

The All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship is an annual series of races formally recognized by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF), and top-class drivers from Japan and overseas participate in it. The GT cars used in the race are tuned-up street cars and categorized into the GT500 class with less than 500 horsepower and the GT 300 class with less than 300 horsepower. The Malaysian race was run as an exhibition match of the All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship until last year. It was however recognized formally as an official race of the Federation International de'l Automobile (FIA) from this year. Last year, a UNISIA JECS SILVIA using YOKOHAMA racing tires won the Malaysian race with its drivers being Yuji Ide and Masataka Yanagida.

Yokohama Tire Mounted Car List for the Japan GT Championship Malaysia