Far from losing heart after failing to finish the first round of the REIS MSA Asphalt Rally Championship, Damian Cole and co-driver Craig Drew have rebounded in the best possible way - by taking their Kumho-shod Ford Focus WRC to four consecutive hauls of maximum points. As a result, they currently lead the series by 16 points from the Ford Escort MKII of Simon Mauger and Ashley Trimble.
The Cole/Drew pairing was lying fifth overall on the Tour of Epynt back in March when power steering pump failure ended their rally prematurely. The fight back began at the very next round, however, with third place overall and maximum championship points from the Manx Telecom Rally in May. Later the same month came the Jim Clark National Rally, and potential disaster for the hard-charging team when their Focus quickly displayed gearchange problems and eventually stuck in sixth before the end of the first stage. Happily the problem was then solved and they went on to win the event outright - the best result of their careers at that time.
They clearly relished the experience, as they repeated the feat three weeks later on the Trinity Hyundai Rally of the Midlands. Despite time lost due to an incorrect tyre choice for the first leg of the Hinckley-based event, they recovered to take overall victory by almost a minute.
So to the most recent round - the Dublin-based ALMC Stages rally of July 18. With the combination of throttle problems and an overheating engine, Cole and Drew ran second for much of the day. However, the leaders struck trouble on the penultimate stage, opening the door to another outright win and maximum championship points for the Hertfordshire crew. With the scoring system counting the best five results from nine events, there is much to play for between now and the season closing Cheviot National Rally in October. However, Cole and Drew have made it very clear that their Kumho-shod Focus WRC is the car to beat.
Said Kumho's European Motorsport Manager Steve Thompson, "Damian is clearly at one with the Focus and determined to win the championship outright. We have been extremely impressed with his driving so far and wish him the very best of fortune with the remaining rounds, the next one of which is the Tyneside Stages Rally this coming Sunday (August 1)."
Thanks to a unique alliance between Kumho national distributor Micheldever Tyre Services and leading alloy wheel manufacturer OZ Racing, ultra competitively-priced wheel/tyre packages featuring Kumho's range of technically advanced UHP tyres are now available from ECSTA Performance Centres nationwide. Everything from Fiestas to Ferraris can be catered for.
Purchasers can choose from the OZ Racing line up of rims or the OZ Racing-designed MSW alloy wheel collection. All are TUV approved and manufactured to the highest possible standard. The rims are available for cars, SUVs and MPVs in a vast array of finishes and sizes from 14in to 22in. Highly-trained wheel specialists are on hand to help customers select the right products for their vehicles.
OZ Racing has been at the forefront of alloy wheel manufacture since 1971, constantly pushing the design envelope to ensure retention of their market leadership. Kumho's race/rally-proven tyres are the natural complement to such high-tech products.
The high levels of risk associated with buying part worn tyres has been revealed by Birmingham City Council after its trading standards officers examined a selection of part worn tyres being sold in the city and found that nine out of ten failed to meet the minimum legal standards.
Among the failures were tyres which had nails embedded, illegal tread depth, exposed cords, inadequate markings and one tyre which was 17 years old. The investigation comes just weeks after TyreSafe found that more than one in ten drivers is more likely to buy part worn tyres compared with 12 months ago.
"The results from the Birmingham investigation are extremely worrying and confirm our worst fears about part worn tyres," explains Stuart Jackson, chairman, TyreSafe. "Although guidelines do exist about the condition of tyres being sold as part worns, they are clearly not being adhered to by all traders. The types of faults found are extremely dangerous and if fitted to a vehicle, could have caused serious accident and injury. This serves as a warning to drivers and we would re-iterate our position that we would always recommend fitting brand new tyres."
The investigation formed part of an ongoing programme by Birmingham City Council to tackle the problem of part worn tyres. This year was its ninth annual investigation and saw it buy ten tyres from retailers across the city. Over the course of the entire programme, the team bought and tested more than 190 part worn tyres with 25 percent found to have some form of structural defect. In this year's survey 30 percent of tyres had structural failings including illegal tread depth and a nail embedded in the casing while 90 percent did not have the correct markings required by law, which identify them as a part worn tyre.
"We are disappointed by the increase in this year's failure rates," comments Cllr Neil Eustace, Chairman of Birmingham Public Protection Committee. "Over the last nine years we have made significant efforts and progress in educating traders across the city about their responsibilities in selling part worn tyres. However, the latest results show that this is not a problem we can forget about and requires a programme of ongoing policing and education."
To validate the hidden dangers of part worn tyres, TyreSafe examined six of the tyres bought by Birmingham Trading Standards by x-ray to identify any further internal damage. All of the tyres showed signs of impact damage resulting in unstable stress points or fatigue in components which would make them much more likely to suffer a blowout. These highly dangerous defects would not be visible under normal inspections that part worn tyres must undergo before going on sale.
As such a safety critical component, many regulations govern the sale of part worn tyres. Among them tyres must be permanently marked as part worn, they must have at least 2mm of tread depth around the whole tyre and the original grooves must be clearly visible in their entirety. Any repairs to the tyre must have been carried out in accordance with British Standards BS AU 159.
Driving his Kumho-shod ART-prepared Dallara-Mercedes at Zandvoort on June 6, Valtteri Bottas became the first person ever to successfully defend the Masters of Formula 3 title - the most important race of the European F3 season, supported by Kumho Tyres since 2002.
Pre-race rain caused the final to start under the pace car. Tyre choice was clearly going to be crucial and Spaniard Roberto Merhi took an early lead, having been the fastest qualifier to opt for Kumho wets. It proved to be the wrong call, however, and as the rain ceased and the track dried out, he was quickly passed by pole sitter Alexander Sims and then Bottas, who were among those running slicks. Bottas assumed the lead from his team-mate soon afterwards - the position he was to hold to the end. The final order for the podium was Bottas, Sims and Marco Wittmann.
Said Bottas, "It was a tough race, but now I am really happy. Winning the masters for the second time was my goal for this weekend. Slicks turned out to be the right choice. It was close once or twice while lapping the other drivers, but that's part of the game."
The Kumho fastest lap award was won by Jean-Eric Vergne who finished in fourth place and was one of six top 10 finishers to come from the British F3 Series. YN Byun, President of Kumho Tire Europe, presented the trophies for fastest lap and third place.
The event was attended by 43,000 people - the largest Masters crowd for several years. They were not only treated to excellent F3 racing but some hot demo laps by Red Bull F1 ace Sebastian Vettel (a planned crack at the outright circuit record proved impossible due to the conditions), who also visited the starting grid and presented the winner's trophy. There was also a thrilling flying display around Zandvoort's start/finish straight by former Red Bull air race pilot Frank Versteegh.
Said Kumho's European Motorsport Manager, Steve Thompson, "To ensure all competitors started with equal opportunity, we provided a unique batch of tyres for the meeting. The specification was completely different to that- used in the F3 Euro Series and included wider 200/550R13 front covers."
Kumho's position as the official Masters of F3 tyre supplier will continue until at least 2011. All cars must compete on Kumho ECSTA racing tyres Depending on the weather, either S700 (dry) slicks or W700 (wet) grooved tyres are fitted - a requirement of over 1,000 tyres all told. Kumho is also the official tyre supplier to the F3 Euro Series, widely acknowledged as the best and most challenging Formula 3 series in the world.
Kumho Tyres recently rewarded some footie-mad members of its ECSTA Performance Centre (EPC) network with a money-can't-buy 'Pitch Day' at Manchester United. Optimising its Platinum Sponsorship of the world's most famous football club, Kumho was able to treat the 40 lucky representatives of its national network of independent tyre retailers to an experience they will never forget.
Old Trafford's popular stadium announcer, Alan Keegan, acted as MC for the day's busy programme, which kicked off with a lively Q&A session with former England captain and Manchester United football legend Bryan Robson - other former United stars on hand included Mickey Thomas, Quinton Fortune and Clayton Blackmore. Then, attired in suitable club strip, the guests exited the players' tunnel to the sound of the official Champions' League anthem. After being put through their paces in an intensive skills session with Manchester United Soccer Schools coaches, they were split into teams for the afternoon's tournament.
Following an over-lunch quiz, the teams returned to the hallowed turf for their six-a-side competition. Each was managed by one of the legends, who also presented the eventual winners, 'Matt's Marvels', with their trophies.
Said a Kumho spokesman, "This is the third time we have held this event at Old Trafford. There are many avid footballers, young and not-so-young, within the EPC network, many of whom still play the game to a high level and this is a fantastic opportunity for them to show their skills and live out their dreams."
Kumho Tires posted first quarter sales of KRW 586.4 billion (parent company only, not consolidated) – a growth of 27.7 percent quarter-on-quarter and 18 percent year-on-year. This resulted in an operating profit of KRW 21.3 billion and a net income of KRW 20.9 billion.
The gains result from an improved plant operation rate and increased export sales. Export volume for the period was up 40 percent year-on-year, thanks in particular to the general recovery of both the car and tyre markets in North America – one of the company's key sales territories. Furthermore, exports of UHP tyres to the world's largest tyre market were up no less than 150 percent. On the operations front, the company raised its production rate to 90 percent – an impressive 30 percent increase over the same period last year. This achievement was aided by the efforts made to maintain appropriate inventory levels since the appointment of the company's CEO, Jong-Ho Kim in mid-2009.
Ho Lee, Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning for Kumho Tires, said: "The company's return to profit is very encouraging for all its stakeholders. The results are even more promising when one takes into account the fact that production could not meet demand due to prolonged collective bargaining and wage negotiations with the union. This, in turn, delayed the injection of much needed emergency funding.
"The positive effect of restructuring will become still more apparent in the second quarter as the company accelerates the recovery process required to complete the work-out programme it is currently undergoing," he added.
The company's Q2 forecast is based on the improved cost competitiveness expected to ensue from its recent agreement with the union that called for both wage cuts and increased productivity, plus a full order book resulting from increased demand for its tyres over the peak summer season.
The turnaround will be still further aided by significantly reduced interest charges once the company's business normalisation plan, which includes debt to equity swaps by creditor institutions, is implemented as intended. In addition, the normalisation currently being undertaken by overseas subsidiaries will help Kumho reduce its equity method losses.
Kumho Tires requested a work-out programme at the end of last year, mainly as a result of liquidity shortages caused by the global economic slowdown and the accumulated deficit of recent years.