Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. today announced that it would become the official supplier of the control tire for the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) for 7 consecutive years from 2006 to 2012. Since 2006, Yokohama Rubber has provided the race with ADVAN, the company's global flagship brand tire as the control tire. Based on its evaluation of ADVAN racing tires as the tire fully satisfying FIA (Federation Internationale d'Automobile) performance requirements, the WTCC has recently decided to use the tire as the control tire for a period from 2010 to 2012.

WTCC is one of the three FIA-titled world championships, along with Formula 1 (F-1) and the World Rally Championship (WRC). It is the world's most prestigious touring car race in which private teams as well as works including BMW, Chevrolet, SEAT and LADA participate. One of the most spectacular attractions of the race is its unprecedentedly-fierce close fight. The race is staged mainly in Europe in addition to Latin America, Asia and, from this year, in Africa. Heated battles of the race are broadcasted worldwide. In Japan, the race will be held from October 31 to November 1, 2009 at the same course as last year: Okayama International Circuit. During the same period, the Formula 4 (F-4) Japanese championship race, for which Yokohama Rubber also serves as the official supplier of the control tire, will be held as a WTCC support race.

Yokohama Rubber will supply ADVAN A005 (dry) and ADVAN A006 (rainy) that are WTCC-only tires capable of enabling any entry cars with different circuit adaptabilities and types to demonstrate their best performance. The company is committed to more strongly emphasizing high quality and high performance of "ADVAN" by "disseminating information throughout the world" and "further upgrading technologies" as the official tire supplier of WTCC.