Yokohama Rubber's motor sport activities are literally global. Needless to say about the world championships, such as WTCC, and international events, we have also have been crowned with many victories in the regional motor sport categories all over the world.

In addition, we supply the ADVAN racing kart tires to the field of kart racing which is considered as a stepping stone to the stardom for young drivers and support their competitions both domestic and abroad.

On this page, we would like to introduce you our motor sport activities in the regional events in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, as well as in the kart racing in Japan and other countries.

Among the legendary European race tracks, Nurburgring in Germany is renowned even for Japanese people as a 'sports car sanctuary.' Yokohama has Test Center in the vicinity of the circuit and uses it as a front-line base to develop our performance tires, such as ADVAN series.

We supply our racing tires to the Black-Falcon team which run an AMG SLS in the Nurburgring based ten rounds endurance championship series, VLN Cup, and the Nurburgring 24 hour race, placing the overall victory in perspective.

We also conduct other motor sport activities in a broader area and provide our ADVAN Eco Racing Tires to the European Touring Car Championship and other national touring car championships in Germany, Spain, Denmark and Russia.

From this year, Yokohama will supply the controlled tires to the newly formed European Production Series. This six rounds series is considered to be supporting race to the WTCC's European rounds and tours around Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Germany and Spain together with WTCC. It has five classes, from D1 to D4, according to the cars' engine output and power to weight ratio, plus the D5 class for SEAT Leon Supercopa cars. Each car can have one or two drivers during a race meeting which consists of two 50 minute races or a single endurance race on Sunday.

Additionally, we provide the controlled tires for the two out of six rounds of the F3 International Trophy, Round 2 Grand Prix de Pau (France) on May 20-22 and Round 5 Macau Grand Prix which we have already been the official supplier. The series begins this year to develop young drivers and engineers as well. Hotly fought battles are expected in the races, as the F1 Super Licenses will be given to the top three finishers of the series.

In North America, we support West YOKOHAMA Racing which runs a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 in the GT class of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). The series consists of nine rounds in the United States and raises its curtain with an event at Florida on March 19th. One of the driving team for this car is Dominik Schwager. The German is well known in Japan as he drove a Yokohama shoed GT500 Toyota Supra in the Japanese GT Championship series in 2003 and 2004.

We also supply the tires another team in the same series. Paul Muller Racing enters a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in the GT class, aiming at the championship.

Besides them, Yokohama provides the controlled Eco Racing Tires for the ALMS's GTC class, IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge in U.S. and Porsche GT3 Cup in Brazil.

Using the GEOLANDAR brand for SUVs, we take part major off road races in this region, such as Baja 1000, too.

As motorization develops, Asian motor sport seems to be gaining momentum.

In China, Yokohama has been the sole tire supplier for the China Touring Car Championship (CTCC) since 2010 and continues to provide the controlled ADVAN Eco Racing Tires for the series this year.

In the field of rallying, we supply the tires to a number of contenders of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC). One of those competitors, Pertamina CUSCO Racing, enters the Asia Cup winning pair of Yuya Sumiyama/Naoki Kase again this year, aiming at defending the title.

Elsewhere, Yokohama provides the tires in the Malaysian Rally Championship, the Indian National Rally Championship and the Gravel Circuit Championship in Sri Lanka. In India and Sri Lanka, the Yokohama equipped teams won the championship title last year and the expectations for repeating their good results are high.

Turning to the Southern Hemisphere, we supply ADVAN Eco Racing Tires as the controlled tires for a pick-up truck race series in Australia, the V8 UTE. The series is very popular in the country and always attracts a large number of spectators which is comparable with Formula One Grand Prix. In the end of 2010, a Super GT driver from Japan, Ryo Orime, joined in a race as the first ever Japanese for the series.

As for the field of kart racing, Yokohama takes part in the top category in Japan, the Super KF (SKF) division of the Japanese Karting Championship. The 2011 calendar has five rounds and nine races for the SKF division, as the four rounds except for the final hold two races each. The competition with other tire manufacturers is allowed in the SKF division and it shall prove superior performance of the ADVAN racing kart tires.

Yokohama continues to provide the controlled ADVAN racing kart tires for the FP Junior Cadet division of the Junior Kart Championship. The young drivers from ten to twelve year old are eligible for the championship and the calendar consists of five rounds each in the east and west area, plus the unified final round to decide the point standings and conclude the season.

As for overseas karting, we continue to supply the controlled tires for the Asia Karting Open Championship, as well as extending the supply to the circuit races in the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and other countries.

Yokohama supports the action of a wide range of kart drivers at their machines make contact with the track.

[UPDATE : 22.Mar.2011]