Reigning Irish Tarmac Rally champion, Eugene Donnelly will switch to BF Goodrich tyres this weekend as he continues his quest to retain his title.
Donnelly has recently joined the Reid Motorsport team and his Subaru WRC will now be equipped with the g-Force tarmac competition tyres developed by BFGoodrich for competitors in the
FIA World Rally Championship. The tyres will be supplied through Kerr's Tyres of Antrim, a key distributor of BFGoodrich car tyres in Ireland.
“Our aim is to put the BFGoodrich brand right at the front of the Irish rally scene and therefore right at the front of tyre buyers' lists. We are backing Eugene and Reid Motorsport to make this happen,” explained Andy Williamson, BF Goodrich marketing manager.
Three times championship winner Donnelly and co-driver Paul Kiely start the Killarney Rally of the Lakes aiming to benefit from the new tyres to go one better than their second place last year. This weekend's event is the third round of this year's Global Group Irish Tarmac Championship.
It has been a hectic few days for Donnelly; his own team has been bought out by the ambitious Reid Motorsport team and his Subaru will appear in new livery and with new sponsors.
Talking about his new team, Donnelly commented: “This is a dream come true. It is great to be part of the Reid Motorsport team and their experience should help secure my future in rallying over the next few years.
“The team carried out a tyre test this week to collate data on three different tyre compounds. We focussed heavily on suspension settings and the BFGoodrich tyres are excellent. They have enabled us to raise the parameters and experiment with more things than in the past. I am very positive about our potential”.
BFGoodrich tarmac rally tyres helped World champion Sebastien Loeb and his Kronos Total Citroen to victory on the 50th Tour de Corse Rally, the most recent asphalt round of the WRC. Donnelly is already looking forward to the Rally Ireland event in November, the fist time that the WRC has included an Irish event.
