Making the Grid39Starting off at 8500rpm, five circuits have to be completed before the revs can be increased by just 500rpm. The process is repeated all the way up to 13,500rpm, at which point the motor will have done around one and a half hours and is considered fit for race use. A raced engine could then be used for a bit of test work before being rebuilt completely with new pistons, rings, valves and bearings.To qualify at a World Endurance Championship round, each rider in the team has to be on the bike for a set 20-minute period. An average of each of the riders’ fastest laps is taken and the combined time sets the grid position. You might think qualifying in a race that lasts 24 hours isn’t that important, but according to the SERT team it’s massively crucial. If you get a bad starting place, it means you risk setting-off among less-experienced, more gung-ho riders that are likely to skittle you in their haste, and it’s likely you’ll lose precious minutes to the front runners that are almost impossible to win back. Stuart Evans – Dunlop UK WEC Technician“Endurance racing is really important to Dunlop, because it reflects both the durability and performance of our products. We take four 40-foot lorries to every round, with two of them being full of tyres alone. We have to be prepared for every imaginable condition at a race, which means carrying lots of wet and intermediate tyres, plus a variety of three front choices and five different rears for our dry rubber. The bigger teams will require fresh tyres during every hourly relay (pitstop), whereas the smaller competitors might try to get two or three hours from a set.“Tyre pressures pretty much stay the same regardless, but at night we’ll almost always encourage teams to use harder compound rubber to get the best grip. We support around 50% of the EWC paddock, but we do our best to deliver a good level of support to all that use Dunlop.”
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