TM visits Brands Hatch race circuit to see the latest innovations to British racing from tyre manufacturer, Avon Tyres.
Avon, one of the last remaining UK tyre manufacturers, has launched its 2015 GT range at a media day, where the press were given the chance to embrace their inner petrol heads and take a lap around the course at 100 mph.
Paul Coates, the general manager of Motorsports at Avon Tyres, commented that the new range of tyres were “a significant step forward in quality and range.”
“The cars had progressed in terms of technology and required a change to match performance in terms of the tyres.”
Avon Tyres is positioned as the performance brand for high performance cars tyres supplier. Though it does have a passenger car focus.
The tyres were brought in to ensure no one car had a significant advantage, and all were equalised on the track.
Avon wanted to ensure a diversity of brands and layout, but not so that the race became uncompetitive.
Coates added: “The tyre package was being exceeded by the quality of the car. We’ve rectified this.”
It’s been three years since Avon introduced a new British GT tyre, after series organiser SRO Motorsports Group, requested the tyre remain the same thanks to team and driver satisfaction.
However, progress was needed as well, to ensure continuous improvement was essential due to consistently increasing lap times among the array of GT cars in the seven rounds of the championship.
Avon is celebrating its tenth season as the title sponsor to the British GT Championship, as well as introducing new the tyre for the 2015 season.
The Wiltshire-based manufacturer recently celebrated its centenary, and is still going strong and showing ingenuity. Avon technical managers for motorsport, Mike Lynch said, “Our new slick tyre is an evolution for Avon’s GT product. We took the opportunity to increase durability and performance of the tyre for 2015.”
