SEBRING, Fla. (March 13, 2006) — Pirelli Tire North America Inc. and Aston Martin Racing have joined forces for this year's running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the opening round of the 2006 American Le Mans Series (ALMS).
“Since we returned to the ALMS in 2002, we have been seeking a top GT1 team to take on the factory Corvettes,” said Peter Tyson, Pirelli's vice president of communications. “The Aston Martins are a known winning force, witnessed by their performance at Sebring last year, and we will aim to supply them with the best rubber on the circuit.”
Aston Martin won the GT1 class last year at Sebring, running on Michelin tires.
Aston Martin Racing will run two cars with Tomas Enge of Czech Republic, Darren Turner of England and Nicolas Kiesa of Denmark in the No. 007 car, while the No. 009 will be driven by Pedro Lamy of Portugal, Stephane Sarrazin of France and Jason Bright of Australia.
The Sebring race, the 54th annual, takes place March 18.
The two companies have a rich racing history. Pirelli won its first Sebring race in 1907. Aston Martin's international racing debut occurred in 1922 when two cars competed in the French Grand Prix.
“Aston Martin and Pirelli is a perfect match—both have a glorious past but both are totally modern companies at the top of their game using cutting-edge technology to produce market leading products,” Mr. Tyson said.
“The recent unveiling of the Aston Martin Rapide concept car on Pirelli tires at the Detroit Auto Show is a superb example of how our two companies can work together in addition to producing truly exciting high-performance road cars.”
Pirelli also is supplying tires to several teams running the GT2 and GT3 categories, including the Multimatic Panoz and Autorlando Porsche teams.