Strakka Switches to Dunlop Tires for Remainder of Season

Photo: John Dagys

Strakka Racing announced Wednesday that it will switch from Michelin to Dunlop tires for the remainder of the FIA World Endurance Championship, beginning with next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The British team, which had been a longtime Michelin technical partner team, tested Dunlop rubber for the first time this week at Spa, with its Strakka-Dome S103 Nissan to also be on Dunlops for the Le Mans Test Day on May 31.

“We’ve been looking at every opportunity we have to close the gap we have to the front-running P2 cars,” said technical director Jay Davenport. “We were the sole runners on Michelin in WEC and by switching to Dunlop it takes away a key variable.

“The Spa test provides a good comparison with our pace over the recent race weekend and offers a chance to optimize set up for the new tires ahead of Le Mans. Our priority now is to understand how we can maximize it for our car.”

The switch leaves all full-season FIA WEC LMP2 teams on Dunlops.

“We are very excited about the potential of working with Dunlop’s engineers,” Davenport added.

“The relationship is already progressing well in a very short space of time and we think this is the right way to go to move up the order and keep challenging for the championship.”

Strakka’s relationship with the French tire giant will continue the open-wheel ranks.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John