Tyre maker BF Goodrich has had a remarkable start to the 2006 FIA World Rally Championship season. They have finished each event of the season with the rally victory - thanks to Kronos Total Citroen World Rally Team's Sebastien Loeb and BP-Ford World Rally Team's Marcus Gronholm, both run BF Goodrich tyres.
The BF Goodrich development team knows that the Rally d'Italia Sardegna has been one of their weaker events in recent years. In 2004, Petter Solberg - running Pirelli tyres - jumped out to an early lead, which he never returned and captured the victory. Though, BF Goodrich has created a surprise tyre for their drivers.
"We call it a 'joker' because although testing went very well it doesn't yet replace an existing tyre," said BF Goodrich's Aime Chatard. "You always got to be careful not to be lured into a false sense of security when testing in rallying. For one thing, the drivers know their test bases increasingly well and that can false the benchmarking process of tested tyres. Also, unlike in circuit races, the drivers don't go over the same roads on the event itself, so the challenge is to extrapolate the results obtained in testing for as yet unknown territory, especially when you're talking about extremely responsive tyres."
"Gravel rally tyres are becoming more and more like racing tyres," Chatard added.
The Rally d'Italia Sardegna will be run 19-21 May.
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