We, Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd., recently presented our motor sport activities plan for 2011 season. As an important part of global operational presence of our tire business, we will conduct a broad range of overseas and domestic motor sport activities again this year.

Firstly, we would like to introduce you to our international motor sport activities. With the pinnacle of touring car races in the world and one of only four world championships sanctioned by FIA, the World Touring Car Championship, heading the list, we are supplying our tires to a variety of categories which draw much attention from motor sport fans all over the world.

Yokohama has been the official tire supplier of WTCC since 2006. By providing the tires for the 'combat on race tracks' for five seasons and assisting such fierce battles, we have gained a strong relation of trust with the world class drivers and teams. From 2010, we began to supply the orange oil blended ADVAN Eco Racing Tires which established a balance between environment-friendliness and performance on a relatively high level.

The 2011 version of WTCC will start on March 20th in Brazil. With the arrival of 1600cc turbo charged petrol engined cars, we will see an interesting three-way battle between different types of engines, the new 1600cc turbo, traditional 2000cc normally aspirated and 2000cc diesel turbo.

Even though several models with different chassis layouts compete with each other in WTCC, as the sole tire supplier, we have to produce the tires that give equal performance level to those differing cars. In this respect, our superb technical abilities have been recognized and, as a clear proof of such recognition, the tire supply agreement had been already extended until 2012.

The WTCC calendar consists of 12 rounds - 24 races - again this year. One of the major topics is the switch of Japanese round's venue, from Okayama International Circuit to Suzuka Circuit for the fourth year to host the event for the country.

Another big topic for Japanese race fans should be a full season drive of Yukinori Taniguchi, the first ever Japanese driver who scored a Yokohama Independent Trophy class win in his home event at Okayama last year. He is also becoming the first Japanese to compete the whole championship and we have high hopes for his good performance.

Being inaugurated in 1954, the oldest motor sport event in Asia, Macau Grand Prix, will have its 58th version this year. The feature races of the event this year are WTCC and Formula 3, both of which Yokohama has been designated as the official tire supplier. So, in the third weekend of November every year, the whole city of Macau has a really exciting time and you could say it's something like 'the Yokohama tire's week.'

The F3 race is run under the title of FIA Formula 3 Intercontinental Cup. Yokohama has been supporting the traditional race as the sole tire supplier for 29 years since 1983, the year F3 regulation was adopted for the first time.

This has been considered as 'the race of F3 champions' because the top contenders from many national and regional F3 championships around the world get together here. It always attracts much attention from all over the world, as many young drivers have been picked by Formula One teams after showing impressive performance in Macau, just as the winner of the inaugural race in 1983, late Ayrton Senna, was.

Besides the F3 and WTCC, there are a lot of supporting races. Many competitors in those races choose to use Yokohama tires and Manabu Orido's victory in Road Sport Challenge race with a Yokohama equipped Nissan GT-R is still fresh in our minds.

Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) is a new international rally series which was officially launched in 2007, following a preliminary season the previous year. By featuring FIA Super 2000 cars, the series has successfully attracted a lot of competitors, including those with Group A or Group N cars, and enjoys great popularity.

It tours around Europe and the calendar includes some of the legendary rally events, such as Monte Carlo Rally. The events are broadcast worldwide by Euro Sport and, in 2010, the hotly fought battles have entertained as many as 79 million TV viewers.

Yokohama Tires plans to take part in six events, including Tour de Corse in France, from the series this year. In this new series which draws international attention, Yokohama equipped cars' great success is expected.

[UPDATE : 22.Mar.2011]