OAK Racing selected as Dunlop’s official LMP1 development partner

The OAK Racing will step up to the pinnacle of sportscar competition in 2011 as Dunlop’s official LMP1 tyre development partner following the team’s first two-day test as an LMP1 manufacturer at Portimao last week.

The decision comes after two successful seasons of collaboration in LMP2 where a strong partnership has been forged between the organisations. Now, OAK/Pescarolo’s prototype and Dunlop tyres will together take on the world’s leading endurance teams and manufacturers at the highest level of sportscar competition.

Jacques Nicolet, OAK Racing Team Owner: “OAK Racing and Dunlop have been working together with success since 2009. The commitment to enter an exclusive partnership for the development work in LMP1 is the result of these two years of intense collaboration. It is born from a solid base of reciprocal knowledge, working methods and a shared racing philosophy. The further strengthening of these links with a tyre manufacturer guarantees the team’s stability, and so enhances the efficiency of the car’s technical evolution over the coming month. This will undoubtedly be aided by the quality of Dunlop’s tyres and staff.”

Jean Félix Bazelin, Dunlop Motorsport Director: “Dunlop is widening and reinforcing its technical link with OAK Racing which has become the development partner for our LMP1 programme. At the same time, the close technical relationship in LMP2, which has been rewarded with excellent results at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Le Mans Series and ILMC, continues. It is therefore a global agreement, with LMP1 the greatest stage on which to express the partnership. In two full seasons, Dunlop has experienced and enjoyed first-hand OAK Racing’s professionalism, philosophy and long-term strategy. Since we began working together, all that has been promised has been delivered. Having established this exceptional mutual trust, it is totally understandable why Dunlop would work alongside the team with such an ambitious programme at the highest level. This will be a long-term partnership as time, experience and sharing of information are key parameters for performance and success. After such a long engagement, this, you could say, is like the beginning of a marriage!”

For both parties, the necessary structures for the partnership’s full implementation are already in place. A test team dedicated only to the development programme has been created within OAK Racing, while the race team has been assigned a specialist Dunlop development engineer who will work alongside the company’s support crew which normally attends each race. The integrated collaboration began at Portimao earlier this week under the supervision of Emmanuel Robinet, Dunlop’s European Motorsport Technology Director.

The Algarve circuit saw Dunlop and OAK Racing, along with regular driver Guillaume Moreau, complete a series of innovative, thorough and specific tests which will bear fruit as development continues into the future.

Indeed, the development programme will include a significant number of test days during the coming year. These have been planned to take place at regular intervals, especially before the start of the 2011 season at Sebring.

As for the end of 2010, OAK Racing remains committed to concluding their season on a high note by confirming the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup LMP2 title in China, following podium finishes at Silverstone and Petit Le Mans. The third and final round of the ILMC, the 1000kms of Zhuhai, takes place on November 7 when Jacques Nicolet, Frédéric Da Rocha and Patrice Lafargue will be reunited once again at the wheel of the #35 Pescarolo-Judd fitted, of course, with Dunlop tyres.