Three-car effort a first for Kumho

Kumho hopes July 4 SCCA win is good omen for the weekend
 
RANCHO CUCAMNOGA, CA..….For the first time since joining the American Le Mans Series in 2005, Kumho Tires will field three cars in an ALMS race. At tomorrow’s Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT, Intersport Racing (in LMP1), and B-K Motorsports and van der Steur Racing (both in LMP2) will all run on Kumhos.

Intersport and B-K have run all of the ALMS races so far this season with Kumho. Van der Steur is returning to the track for the first time since a testing accident in March forced the team to miss the first five races of the season.

Coming off a first-ever class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and June tests at Mid-Ohio and Road America, Kumho brought new tires to Lime Rock for a July 3 test day. The test day went well, and all three teams ran well on the new tires in this morning’s practice session.

“Working with three teams in the ALMS and two teams in the Le Mans Series in Europe is really helping our tire development process,” said Rudy Consolacion, motorsports manager for Kumho Tire U.S.A. “We’re making some great strides because we’re getting good input from all of our teams and because we’re working closely with our guys in Europe and Korea.”

Notes:  Aaron Quine, motorsports service specialist with Kumho, set the tone for Kumho this week with a pair of wins in SCCA Club Racing on Kumho’s ECSTA V710 tires. After driving his T1 Corvette to a pole and a win at an SCCA regional race at Nelson Ledges in Ohio on Sunday, July 1, Quine left early the next morning and drove the Kumho 18-wheeler to Lime Rock for the July 3 test day. When he arrived at Lime Rock on Monday evening, he learned the track would host an SCCA regional race on July 4. He placed a call back home to Akron, and a friend was soon on his way to Lime Rock with Quine’s pickup truck, trailer and Corvette racecar. On July 4, Quine—who’d never before driven the Lime Rock circuit—put his car on the pole and won the race. “After qualifying, another guy with a new Corvette came up and asked me who I was and where I came from,” said Quine. “He couldn't believe I’d never driven here before because this is his home track and I was four seconds a lap quicker than him. He was running on another brand of tires, so I told him he needed to switch to Kumhos.”