Dunlop set to begin GT tire testing

Dunlop will begin testing new specification tires next week ahead of its planned return to the competitive GT arena in 2015.

The company will evaluate rubber for both the GTE and GT3 classes over three tests with undisclosed teams before the end of year, starting at Monza next week on a customer GTE car.

The move follows Dunlop's withdrawal from GT series with open tire regulations in 2014 as a result of a relocation of its European motorsport manufacturing operation from the UK to Germany.

A lack of manufacturing capacity forced it to temporarily end its involvement in the GT categories in the European Le Mans Series and the VLN long-distance championship on the Nurburgring-Nordschleife, but it has continued to supply control rubber to the International GT Open series.

Dunlop Motorsport marketing and communications director James Bailey said: "We will be testing new concept GT tires that draw on what we have learnt with our successful new 2014 LMP2 tire. Our aim is to get back to the level of success we enjoyed in 2011-'13.

Dunlop won the American Le Mans Series teams' and drivers' GT title (now GTE) with the Rahal BMW team in 2011, the ELMS GTE Pro drivers' and teams' crowns with Jonny Cocker and the JMW Ferrari squad in 2012 and last year triumphed at the Nurburgring 24 Hours with a Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.

Bailey stressed that Dunlop had no deals in place for 2015 and that its first task was to prove that it had competitive products.

The manufacture of racing tires on its historic Fort Dunlop site in Birmingham,England came to an end after the lease on part of its facility was not renewed. Production was moved to its Hanau factory near Frankfurt in Germany, but motorsport research and development remains in Birmingham.