Michelin races to learn, races to win in American Le Mans Series technical partnership
Written by Scott Keller · April 26, 2008
The American Le Mans Series is one of the most technically challenging racing series in the world. One could arguably say that the young series is second only to Formula 1 in the level of technical expertise, design, and competition. For the series to be successful and their teams to be competitive, they need manufacturers on board as technical partners. One essential partner for over two thirds of the teams in the American Le Mans Series paddock is Michelin Tires, who bring the motto, “Race to learn, race to win” to the table. And win the have done. Recently at the 2008 Tequila Patrón ALMS at Long Beach they broke the 250-win mark in American Le Mans Series competition.
This past weekend, the boys from Fastmachines.com had a special opportunity to spend some time with engineers from Michelin and learn more about what their technical partnership brings to the ALMS, and what the competition on the track brings to the road tires that the everyday consumer can buy.
Michelin has chosen to compete in the ALMS because of the key philosophies that the series holds. ALMS is a series that emphasizes innovation, car development, manufacturer involvement, and the commitment to new “green”, environmentally friendly technologies. We had the privilege at Long Beach of meeting Scott Atherton, President and CEO of the ALMS. This man is a true believer, and if you ever meet him, you will understand his passion for the ALMS, for motorsport, and for innovation. He spoke of how important the ALMS is to the manufacturers involved, and how much they learn and can transfer technology from the race track to the road cars they sell to consumers. “The line from the race car to the street car is not just a dotted line, it’s a solid line,” said Atherton.
It is this solid line, this direct connection, that is so attractive to Michelin. The motor sports landscape of North America has become so monolithic in nature, that innovation has been reduced to tiny tweaks that are allowed by what have become ‘de facto ‘ spec series. But in the ALMS, innovation is alive and well. This is incredibly important to manufacturers that provide equipment to each part of the car.
For Michelin, it means they get to test their tire compounds on a myriad of prototype and GT cars in four different classes. Each class runs a different classification of weight, wheelbase, and horsepower. And the mixed schedule of natural terrain road courses, and city street circuits gives Michelin engineers a change to monitor the performance of their tires on all kinds of surfaces. The streets of Long Beach are especially punishing where the surface has spots the are reminiscent of a cheese grater.
Michelin supplied tires to 18 of the 29 teams that competed at Long Beach, but on any given race weekend they supply more than tires alone. Each ALMS team equipped with Michelin rubber is assigned two engineers that spend their entire weekend working with the team. We were able to spend some time with Michelin engineers during Friday qualifying at Long Beach and see them in action, working with the team, and monitoring the performance of the tires. The Michelin staff seem a lot like a family in the pits, and seem to have a lot of fun on race weekend, but they also seem to have their “friendly rivalries. ” They take their team assignments seriously, and work hard to give their team the data they need to be quick on the track, and gain some bragging rights.
But the work doesn’t end on the weekend for the Michelin team engineers. These men and women at the track are the same engineers that design and develop consumer tires as their “every day job”. This means that they can take data, observations, and experience they’ve learned on the track straight back to the lab. This is the straight, solid line, that Michelin values in making their consumer tires safer and longer lasting.
This data is so valuable, that Michelin takes a number of measures to keep it under wraps. It was somewhat surprising to learn that the ALMS teams do not buy tires, they lease them. And to get access to the tires, each team is obligated to check out individually bar-coded tires during testing periods and race weekends, and check them back in with Michelin at the close of each session or weekend. This sounds easy, but at Long Beach, which is one of the shortest races of the season, Michelin brought 2,000 tires on three 53′ trailers to supply the teams.
The entire program that Michelin brings to the team is, to borrow a phrase from ALMS, ‘World Class.’ The pairing of Michelin and the top teams in the ALMS is perfect match for a series that is making a bigger and bigger mark on the landscape of American and International motor sports, and a manufacturer that is constantly striving to make safer and better-performing tires.
For more information on all of the motors ports involvement by Michelin, you can visit their Michelin Motor Sports site here.
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That’s Josh Katinger and Scott Keller of Fastmachines.com pictured third and fourth from the left. A special thanks to Adam Paige, pictured second from the left, who was one of our hosts from Michelin over the Long Beach weekend. Also pictured, first in line is Albert Austria from Edmunds.com.
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