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 tire 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.

YOKOHAMA tires have been the control tires for the Japanese SUPER FORMULA Championship since 2016, and we will be supplying our ADVAN racing tires 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 tire sizes will be 270/620R13 for front tires and 360/620R13 for rear tires.

We will be providing our ADVAN racing tires as the control tire 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 tire sizes will be 200/50VR13 for front tires and 240/45VR13 for rear tires.

Yokohama Rubber will again supply its ADVAN racing tires as the control tire 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.

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.

Yokohama Rubber will supply its tires 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 tires. 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 tires will be the ADVAN A005 for races run in dry conditions and the ADVAN A006 for wet conditions.

Yokohama Rubber will again supply its ADVAN racing tires as the control tire 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 tires, as well such national TCR series as TCR Iberico, TCR Benelux,TCR Germany, TCR Scandinavia and TCR Russia. The control tires 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.

In addition to the above races, Yokohama Rubber will supply its ADVAN racing tires to teams competing in a number of other races around the world. In North America, our tires 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 tires for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge CANADA. Meanwhile, in Japan, ADVAN racing tires will be used in Inter Proto Series races.

YOKOHAMA again will supply its GEOLANDAR tires 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.

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 tires 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) tires as the control tire for use on dry tracks.
Overseas, we again will be supplying the control tire for the Asian Karting Open Championship, as well as tires for circuit races in the Philippines and other countries.

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 tires under the demanding conditions of motor sports contributes to our development of tires 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.