Tokyo—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., is pleased to announce that vehicles running on its “GEOLANDAR M/T G003” mud-terrain tires for SUVs and pickup trucks finished first and second in the 4800 class of the 2021 King Shocks Area BFE Beatdown, an off-road race held in Utah over the April 3-4 weekend. The King Shocks Area BFE Beatdown is the initial race in the rigorous ULTRA4 Racing’s West Series. More than 20 machines competed in the 4800 class.

ULTRA4 Racing is a series of races in which open buggies, called Ultra4 vehicles, compete on a variety of terrain, from endurance desert racing to competition-style rock crawls. The races demand high levels of speed, technique, and endurance on rough roads. King Shocks Area BFE Beatdown is run over a rocky and hilly six-mile (about 10 km) course. Competitors in the 4800 class race for five laps or a total of 30 miles (about 48 km). The superior endurance and handling performance provided by the “GEOLANDAR M/T G003” tires contributed to the successful runs by first-place finisher Cody Young and runner-up David Hartman.

The GEOLANDAR M/T G003 delivers superior performance on the full range of off-road surfaces over an exceptionally long lifespan. In addition, the tire features a sturdy and aggressive design that enhances the off-road driving sensation. YOKOHAMA’s GEOLANDAR tires have demonstrated their superior off-road performance in many races in recent years, including a championship at the APL SMOKIN’ WHEELS 2018 race held in Guam; a class championship in the 2019 Tatts Finke Desert Race, Australia’s ultimate off-road racing event ; and an overall championship in the 2020 BlueWater Desert Challenge, the final event of North America’s ultimate off-road racing series, Best In The Desert.

The consumer tire business in Yokohama Rubber’s new three-year (2021–2023) medium-term management plan, Yokohama Transformation 2023 (YX2023), aims to maximize the sales ratios of high-value-added YOKOHAMA tires, namely the global flagship ADVAN brand, the GEOLANDAR brand of tires for SUVs and pickup trucks, and various winter tires. YX2023 positions participation in motorsports activities as crucial to the company’s effort to develop new tire technologies that will further strengthen the ADVAN and GEOLANDAR brands. Yokohama Rubber therefore is again participating in a wide variety of motorsports events in Japan and around the globe, from top-category to grassroots events.