Kumho Tyre Australia has announced it has extended its relationship with some of Australia's key motor sport categories as well as expanding its relationship with another significant class.
Kumho has extended its 12-year relationship with the V8 Touring Car category, signing up as the control tyre supplier for another three years, extending a relationship that began back in 2008.
At the same time Kumho has extended its three-year relationship as control supplier to the exciting Aussie Racing Cars of another three years while expanding its involvement with the Sports Sedan category from a state to a national basis.
For Kumho Tyre Australia's director of sales and marketing, David Basha, the commitment to Australian motor sport is about much more than a marketing or branding exercise.
"Motor racing may seem a million miles from the tyres that everyday motorists run on their road cars, but the task of developing motor sport tyres teaches our engineers some enormous lessons about how road tyres can be improved and evolved," said David Basha.
"Everything in racing is amplified compared to road car tyres, with higher speeds, temperatures and corner loadings so in many ways it is an accelerated development exercise," he said.
"V8 Touring cars as a category has been loyal and had an enormous amount of faith in Kumho and we believe we have mutually benefitted from the relationship over the past 12 years, and similarly with Aussie Racing Cars over the past three years," he added.
"Kumho puts a lot of store in long term relationships and loyalty which is reflected in our long tenures with various motor sport categories and we look to have a long and fruitful relationship with Sports Sedans as well," he said.
Kumho Australia has re-affirmed its commitment to V8 Touring Cars as part of its ongoing motor sport portfolio in Australia in a deal that will take the relationship with the category to at least the end of 2022, which will be a 15-year commitment to the class.
Kumho engineers have worked closely with the Australian V8 Touring Car organisers over the past decade to develop race rubber that suits the cars, the tracks they race on and the Australian environment.
Kumho engineers in Korea have worked to develop a category specific tyre to meet the demands of local racing.
V8 Touring Cars category CEO Liam Curkpatrick said that when Kumho first became the official tyre supplier for the category in 2008 fields were small and there was not much motivation to engineer and build a tyre specifically for the Falcon and Holden Touring cars.
"Kumho's commitment never wavered and when numbers grew and we started to have a few challenges with performance and longevity Kumho did not hesitate to send engineers to study the category, talk with the drivers and collect data," said Liam Curkpatrick.
"We have such a wide variety of tracks from tight and twisty places like Winton to the fast and demanding Bend Motorsport Park in SA, and obviously our cars are relatively heavy and very powerful with five litre V8s but the Kumhos have always performed superbly," he added.
Kumho has also inked a new deal with the 'pocket rocket' Aussie Racing Cars which continues an arrangement which started in 2017 when Kumho first signed on as control tyre supplier.
The Aussie Race Cars use Kumho's V700 semi slick competition tyre which has proved highly successful for Aussie Racing Cars delivering a tyre that works well on the cars and provide good, consistent, close racing at a reasonable price for competitors.
Category manager for Aussie Racing Cars, Brad Ward said that it was great to have Kumho sign on for another three years with the best semi slick competition tyre which has proved to be the perfect tyre for the little race cars.
"The V700 has a strong track record with us and delivers our driver's lot of confidence as a result of its high grip levels, longevity and reliability," said Brad Ward.
"All this combines with Kumho's strong position in the tyre market and the motor sport infrastructure it has through its network of distributors and we believe it continues to be the the best overall package for Aussie Racing Cars," he said.
From this year Kumho will also be the control tyre for Sport Sedans across the nation following the success of the company's agreement with Sports Sedan racing in NSW for the past three years
Kumho Tyre Australia motorsport distributor David Atkin said Sport Sedans is an exciting race category and the experience gained by Kumho over the past three years in NSW gave it the knowledge and background to secure an arrangement on a national basis.
"Sports Sedans is a significant category and extremely popular across the country and Kumho is keen to provide the competitors with tyres that provide the levels of grip, reliability and consistency that our other key categories have enjoyed over so many years," said David Atkin.
ENDS