IMSA: Team Falken Tire's formidable challenge

Pitted against well-funded factory teams and the might of sports car tire giants Michelin, Team Falken Tire has become a favorite David-versus-the-GT-Goliaths story to follow since joining the American Le Mans Series in 2009.

Now in its sixth season of competition, the Walker Racing-led outfit is searching for its maiden TUDOR United SportsCar Championship win this weekend at VIR and, thanks to a recent test at the rapid road course, Team Falken veteran Bryan Sellers is hoping the No. 17 Porsche 911 RSR is primed for success in the GT Le Mans category.

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"VIR has been a great place for us to test the Falken tire over the last couple of years," Sellers (LEFT) told RACER. "The track has a lot of different elements to it that are important for testing. It is a difficult track on tires so we learn a great deal on the durability as well as the speed of the compound and construction. It is also a difficult place to get a good car setup mechanically. There are a lot of corners you do a fair amount of braking and turning simultaneously. You have to have a good platform to be strong in those corners.

"There are also a lot of corners where you use the curbing extensively, so you need compliancy in the car. VIR gives us a chance to test a lot of different things at a single track and I think we will have a good platform for the last couple of races based on what we learned in testing at VIR."

The team closed the chapter on GT racing in the ALMS in style last year at Petit Le Mans, scoring a popular win before transitioning to the TUDOR Championship. It wasn't Falken's first ALMS win, but with a brand-new series and plenty of stiff competition to face in GTLM, Sellers says past victories are of little importance at the moment.

"Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which side that you're on, our business is measured in success, it's measured in wins," he said. "And if you don't win you're not successful. But the unfortunate part to that is that is not always the case. We haven't been a powerhouse of dominance like Corvette has with Jan [Magnussen] and Antonio [Garcia], but we have improved and that's our focus. We have been making substantial improvements. And I think Mosport was a pretty good example of that. For the first time this year, really actually showed some solid speed and the ability to race hard with the other brands."

Teams fall into two categories at any given race: Those who are ready to win and those who are learning how to win. For the Falken team, 2014 has been a season-long educational process, and despite narrowing the gap to the opposition, the single-car outfit has a much bigger task at hand than everyone else.

From missing the Rolex 24 at Daytona to build a new car to serving as the only non-Michelin car in GTLM, Sellers and his teammate Wolf Henzler came prepared for an uphill battle.

"For us, we knew coming into this season that it wasn't going to be a walk in the park," Sellers admitted. "We knew the new RSR was a completely different animal and that we were going to have to readjust everything that we've done in all these years. That certainly has been the case."

The move to Porsche's revised 911 RSR model has also required Falken to fundamentally alter its tire to suit the new car.

"It's not the same as the old RSR," Sellers continued. "We basically saw a car in previous years that had nothing but oversteer. So we focused on rear tires, rear tires, rear tires. And now we have a car that we've had the majority of the season based off of understeer. And so we've had to dial back some of the rear tire adjustments that we've gone after for all these years. And you can see always powerhouse teams have two cars. And that is mainly based on the fact that it allows them to get more data points for a given weekend. Having to develop something new for us just takes longer, but we know that going into the process."

Along with other testing activities, the recent test at VIR has helped Falken to shape its tire construction and compounds to suit the 911 RSR.

"We didn't get the car until the Sebring test days and then things started to roll," Sellers explained. "We went to Sebring and we didn't even start testing really until just a short time ago. So the first three or four races that we did were on last year's tires, with some small variations, because we didn't have the opportunity to test and develop anything else. So we're just now starting to actually arrive with what I would say is our 911 RSR tire, as opposed to the 997 RSR tires. Some of the progression you are seeing, it is just based on time alone."

Sellers isn't ready to predict a repeat of Team Falken Tire's win at Petit Le Mans when the TUDOR Championship descends on Road Atlanta in six weeks, but he is feeling optimistic the unmistakable blue and green No. 17 will be a contender in the 10-hour/1000-mile season finale.

"I certainly don't think it's too much to ask," he said. "I think it is our goal to go back and repeat as winners, no question, and I think it is a seizable goal. We have a lot of work to do between now and then to get to the point where we're able to do that, but we're starting to lay that foundation to be able to succeed. So I suspect that, come to Petit Le Mans time, we'll be ready to contend. And I think, like I said, in Mosport we showed the moment of brilliance that actually showed that we can contend even now, but it just needs to be headed for the right place and the right time for that to happen. I see us being ready by Petit."