SEBRING, Fla. — Pirelli Tire North America kicked off its 2022 motorsports season debuting an 18-inch rim diameter racing tire in the Trans Am Series Feb. 24-27 at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Fla.
Trans Am is one of 10 major racing championships that Pirelli supplies in North America, a commitment that requires 40 Pirelli personnel to cover the nearly 100 races those series collectively will stage this year.
Hoping to align its motorsport tires closer to road-going tires, Pirelli developed 18-inch, low-profile race tires for the Trans Am's TA class, similar to what it's done in Formula 1. Tires for this class previously were 16-inch diameter.
The most visible change in the tire is the reduction of the sidewall height, so the P Zero race tires look more like the low-profile street tires that are fitted to many of the world's leading performance road cars.
The switch to the 18-inch tire has been in the works since 2019, according to Pirelli, the series spec tire supplier since the 2017 season.
"This championship is particularly important... as it is at the heart of American automotive culture, with extremely close racing and very high standards of driving," Pirelli said.
"As well as providing great entertainment, this partnership enables Pirelli to reinforce its links with iconic American car manufacturers, and further enhance the connection between road and track with high-technology P Zero products," the company said.
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Also making its 2022 season debut at Sebring was the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA), the largest vintage racing organization in the country and open to virtually any vintage or historic race car. The series will share a number of key dates with the Trans Am Series as part of the Speed Tour.
Motorsports are an essential part of Milan, Italy-based Pirelli & C. S.p.A.'s research and development program, serving as an open-air testing laboratory, the company said.
"This is why Pirelli places such an emphasis on motorsport in every global territory, as it is only by pushing the extremes of performance on track that the best Ultra High-Performance tires are created for the road," Pirelli, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2022, said.
Pirelli, which is supplying over 200 car racing championships worldwide, claims to be among companies "that invest most into research and development through motorsports, in order for the competition product to be as closely aligned to road car tires as possible."