Pirelli Heads Overseas for the Ninth Round of the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship at Laguna Seca

California Will Host the Production Derived Series World Championship for the Fourteenth Time: Pirelli Relies on its Wide-Range Compound Options for Front and Rear Tires

SALINAS, Calif. – This week the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship is heading to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the last race weekend before taking a long summer break. The ninth round of the season will feature WorldSBK class riders on the track, while for all other categories the next round will be at Lausitzring, Germany, September 16th to 18th. At the end of this race weekend, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will host a Pirelli SBK® Track Day, an event scheduled for Monday, July 11th where the Pirelli staff will entertain journalists, opinion leaders, distributors and retailers for a day of track activities.

Pirelli, Sole Tire Supplier since 2004, has prepared for the U.S. race a wide-range of compound options to face this challenging track, full of ups and downs with frequent load transfers that stress both, front and rear tires. However, the proximity to the sea causes surface temperature leaps between morning and afternoon sessions.

The Milanese Company has identified three different options for the rear tire: in addition to SC0 and SC1 range options, riders will count also on T1257, a development compound of the SC0. For the front tire there will be available both standard SC2 and SC3 range options together with the S1699, a well-known SC1 development compound. However, in the case of rain, riders can also rely on a development option for the rear tire, in addition to the wet range one.

Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) presents himself at Laguna Seca as the Championship’s leader with 343 points: the reigning World Champion has been on the podium at every race in the first eight rounds this season and boasts a lead of 66 points over his teammate and Championship contender Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), on 277 points. Rea and Sykes have signed a one-two in both races at the end of the last round in Misano Adriatico, thus gaining valuable points on Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), currently third in the World Standings with 244 points. The Welsh rider last year achieved a perfect result at Laguna Seca, conquering the Superpole and his first double victory on a Ducati.

Kawasaki is leading the Manufacturers Standings with 371 points with an advantage of 74 over Ducati, which is following with 297 points. Honda is currently third on the Manufacturers podium with 215 points.

Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is located in Monterey County, in the heart of the Central California Coast, an area with a strong motorcycle vocation: in the Fifties this county hosted races on public roads called the Pebble Beach Road Races. As witnessed in the great success of these competitions, at the end of the decade the promoters decided to move the competitions inside a closed and adequate structure to raise safety standards.

Laguna Seca circuit was born this way, whose current configuration has a length of 3610 meters in a counterclockwise direction, with a width of 15 meters throughout the whole circuit. Among the 11 curves (7 on the left, 4 on the right) there is the famous Corkscrew, a chicane at the top of the hill, which is situated on a steep slope. Ridden at 80 km/h, where the tires are being affected by rapid changes of direction on the camber especially on the front, instead forcing the rear tire to fast load transfers from side to side.

After reaching the minimum length required by the FIM, approved in 1988 thanks to the construction of the section between turns 2 and 5, the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca has undergone a new restyling between 2005 and 2006, with several works designed to provide further rider safety: the expansion of escape routes, the replacement of the curbs and the displacement of some safety protection, as well as small maintenance work next to the bump before the Corkscrew.

The options for Superbike class

On the occasion of the U.S. round, Pirelli a total of 1785 tires to the track, all destined to the Superbike class riders, the only class to race at Laguna Seca. Pirelli has a wide-range of tires for this race weekend in order to handle all obstacles thrown their way at the track.

In regards to the slick tires, for the front, in addition to the SC2 and SC3 range, there will be available the SC1 development tire S1699, one of the most used options by the Superbike grid, which can offer the riders greater grip, an important element on a track like Laguna Seca.

For the rear tire, there are two soft options and a medium one: together with the standard SCO, riders can rely on the SC0 development tire T1257, or in case of low temperatures, which are typical to the early morning hours, they can rely also on SC1 range one.

As always in the case of wet conditions, Pirelli will provide both DIABLO™ Wet – the intermediate – and DIABLO™ Rain tires. In particular at Laguna Seca there will be available two rear wet tires; a range and a new development one.

The 2015 Pirelli statistics for Laguna Seca

ABOUT PIRELLI

Founded in 1872, Pirelli is among the largest global tire makers, and focuses its business on the high end, premium product segment where it is a world leader. Present in over 160 countries, Pirelli has 22 manufacturing sites and employs approximately 38,000 people around the world. Successfully competing in motorsports since 1907, Pirelli is currently the exclusive supplier of the Formula 1 championship, the Superbike world championship, and many other championships around the world.

Pirelli Tire North America (PTNA) services NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) member countries through its Modular Integrated Robotized System (MIRS) facility and research and development center at its Rome, Georgia headquarters, its state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Silao, Mexico and its New York City, Montreal and Mexico City sales and marketing offices. The company manufactures, distributes and markets original equipment and replacement tires for export and domestic car/motorcycle applications (US, CA, MX) and Agro/Heavy Truck platforms (MX).