Intersport Racing and Kumho Tyres have decided to suspend their joint LMP1 tyre development programme in the American Le Mans Series, with Jon Field's team having to use another brand of rubber for the remainder of the season.
After using Kumho's LMP2 tyre at the season-opening Sebring 12 Hours, Intersport has been running the Korean company's new LMP1 product on its Judd-powered Creation for the past seven races. However, despite achieving five consecutive podium finishes with the tyres before mechanical failures ended the run, both parties decided to call time on the tyre development.
“We've made good progress with our LMP2 tyre program because we've got four teams [
two in the ALMS and two in the European -based Le Mans Series] running our tyres,” Kumho motorsport manager Rudy Consolacion explained, "But, with just one team running our P1 tyre, our development programme hasn't progressed as quickly as we or Intersport would like, so we'll focus on developing our LMP2 tyres for the rest of this year and then re-evaluate our LMP1 program at the end of the season.”
Field confirmed that Intersport would be looking to alternative rubber for the remainder of 2007.
“Rudy and the rest of the Kumho guys have been great to work with and have provided excellent service for our team,” he said, “Kumho is making progress with its LMP1 tyre, but we want to try another tyre for the rest of the season and see if it helps us pick up a little more speed."
