Intersport Racing Will Roll On Dunlop Tires At Mosport

Detroit — Following the American Le Mans Series Championship round 8 at Road America, Intersport Racing and Kumho Tires announced the suspension their LMP1 tire development program in the American Le Mans Series. Intersport Racing will use Dunlop tires for the rest of the season.

“Dunlop was the obvious choice at this point,” commented Intersport Racing’s team owner, Clint Field, regarding today’s announcement. “They have a knowledge base of the Creation chassis, in-as-much as they are already supplying the European Creation cars. And, in addition, they have two cars on the LMP1 grid in the American Le Mans Series.  As the quickest non-diesel powered LMP1 car in the American Le Mans Series’ paddock, I think the relationship will be beneficial to both Intersport Racing and Dunlop Tire.”

Intersport had been running Kumho's new LMP1 tire for the past eight races on the team's Judd-powered Creation CA06-H. The team achieved five consecutive LMP1 podium finishes with the tires until mechanical failures knocked the car out of the last two events.

"We've made good progress with our LMP2 tire program because we've got four teams (two in the ALMS and two in the European Le Mans Series) running our tires," said Rudy Consolacion, motorsports manager for Kumho Tire U.S.A. "With just one team running our P1 tire, our development program hasn't progressed as quickly as we or Intersport would like. We'll focus on developing our LMP2 tires for the rest of this year and then re-evaluate our LMP1 program at the end of the season.

"Rudy and the rest of the Kumho guys have been great to work with and have provided excellent service for our team," said Intersport Racing driver Jon Field. "Kumho is making progress with its LMP1 tire, but we want to try another tire for the rest of the season and see if it helps us pick up a little more speed."

The next round of the American Le Mans Series is the Mobil 1 presents Grand Prix of Mosport from Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. The race will start at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 26 and will be broadcast live on SPEED. American Le Mans Radio and IMSA's Live Timing and Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com.

The American Le Mans Series features 12 races in 2007, including the prestigious season-opening Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (March 17) and the 1,000-mile/10-hour Petit Le Mans. All other races are sprint endurance formats, ranging from an hour, 40 minutes at Long Beach to four hours at both Road America and the Series finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. All events are televised by CBS, NBC or SPEED.

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The American Le Mans Series is the premium brand of motorsport in North America, featuring high-tech sports cars from the most prestigious automobile manufacturers in the world. Its unique four classes of competition showcase exotic, open-top prototypes and sophisticated production-based GT cars, all competing on the track at the same time. The American Le Mans Series competes at the premier road racing tracks across North America and at selected temporary street circuits in major urban markets. With a 2007 television package that includes five network broadcasts on CBS and NBC and seven telecasts on SPEED, plus live broadcasts across Europe, the Series delivers a global marketing platform that is unmatched in motorsports. The Series, founded in 1999 by Georgia entrepreneur Don Panoz, represents a mirror image to the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s most famous and authentic automobile race. The American Le Mans Series features elite marques such as Audi, Porsche, Corvette, Aston Martin, Ferrari and Panoz, and premium brands such as Michelin, Yokohama, Kumho, Lowe’s, Shell and many others.