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DMACK Pins Hopes On New Stud Technology In Sweden
Next week’s Rally Sweden, the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship, will see DMACK introduce a completely new winter tyre which it believes will cope with the demands of the high-speed, snow-covered frozen roads.
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Its new winter tyre, which features a new construction, compound and studding method, has been developed in partnership with DMACK driver Jari Ketomaa and its motorsport partners in Finland.
While tyre selection at the season-opening Rallye Monte Carlo last month was the point of much debate, choosing tyres for the snow and ice-covered gravel rounds in Sweden will be a much simpler affair.
DMACK will supply competitors with its DMG-ICE winter tyre which is equipped with 384 metal pins – each 20mm long with a maximum 7mm protrusion. It may look similar to last year but the tyre has undergone significant changes since 2012. The open tread pattern has already demonstrated its ability to cope with loose snow but a new construction and compound will ensure the tyre delivers maximum performance on frozen gravel and ice.
However, one of the biggest advances has been in the studding process. Tyre technology has transformed winter rallies over the years with specially designed studded tyres giving crews the grip and traction required to hit high speeds on icy roads.
And it’s new studding technology, developed in-house by DMACK’s partners in Finland, that’s helped to boost the performance of the winter tyre. DMACK has developed a unique ‘T-Bar’ studding system, with greater quality control at every step in the process, and this has transformed stud retention on frozen surfaces.
DMACK will be pinning its hopes on Finn Ketomaa once the event gets underway from Karlstad next Thursday evening with the traditional Superspecial stage. He should be right up to speed in his Autotek-run Ford Fiesta RS WRC car as he’s coming straight from the Rally Liepāja-Ventspils in Latvia, second round of the FIA European Rally Championship, which is also run on ice.
DMACK’s other top runners include Czech driver Martin Prokop in a Fiesta WRC, who is taking part in Rally Finnskog in Norway this weekend, and MINI WRC driver Michal Kosciuszko from the Lotos WRC Team who will undertake a pre-event shakedown on Monday.
Running under the DMACK Autotek banner in WRC2 is Eyvind Brynildsen. The young Norwegian is kicking off his campaign in a Fiesta RRC car before planning a switch to the newer R5 specification later in the season.
Rally Sweden has been kind to DMACK in the past. In 2011, on its first ever WRC event, DMACK took victory in the Production WRC category with Martin Semerad.
Event Details
With Rally HQ at its traditional base in Karlstad, most of the rally takes place around the central service area at Hagfors airfield. Competitive action gets underway with the exciting run around the Karlstad trotting track on Thursday evening but the real action kicks off on Friday with stages in the Hagfors region.
Saturday’s stages run to the east of Hagfors while the bulk of Sunday’s action takes place across the border in Norway. The final day could provide a sting in the tail with the 27km Mitandersfors stage and the 19km run through the final test – the Torsby Power Stage.
Dick Cormack, DMACK motorsport director, said: “Last year our weakness was on frozen gravel and we’re confident that all the hard work and technical development with our new tyre will really pay off. We’ve developed a unique studding method in-house and that gives us more control over the quality and studding process. However, the compound and construction has also been improved and we’ve seen real steps forward in terms of performance during winter testing.”
PaddockTalk Perspective
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Also in WRC Rally News 2010: |
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