China pivotal to Pirelli's racing and road tyre activities
CHINA PIVOTAL TO PIRELLI'S
RACING AND ROAD TYRE ACTIVITIES
Actively committed to China, where the company also has two advanced production facilities, Pirelli Tyre SpA pays great attention to the development of Chinese motor sport, which is clearly undergoing rapid expansion.
Milan, 18th of March 2007 - As well as its commitment to the FIA-GT Championship, which begins next weekend at the Zhuhai circuit, Pirelli Competizioni will also play a leading role in a more regional perspective by virtue of the fact that the company is to compete with its Pirelli PZero tyres on all the cars of drivers entered for the Asia SuperCar Challenge (ASCC), the series for top GT cars in South-East Asia.
The Milan manufacturer is to be the exclusive tyre supplier for all 10 scheduled races - two are planned for each weekend of racing between March and September - four of them taking place on the Shanghai, and Sepang (Malaysia) circuits, where Formula One races have taken place for a number of years.
The agreement signed between Pirelli Competizioni and organizers' of the series, the SuperCar Club Hong Kong Ltd, confirms once more the attention the Italian tyre maker intends to pay to China, including on the sporting front. It also asserts Pirelli's orientation in knowing how to in-volve itself deeply into the commercial and structural fabric of the markets in which it is present, becoming a Chinese reality in China, Brazilian in Brazil, German in Germany, Australian in Australia and so on. In addition, Pirelli has also reached agreement to supply tyres for the American Grand Am series for three years (2008-2010), which has for years been one of the most spectacular and successful championships in United States motor racing.
On that basis, the presence of PZero Racing tyres in the ASCC series should not, therefore, be seen as a sudden new development, but as the result of a global activity of support for an ex-tremely interesting market as immense and competitive as that of China. A market in which Pirelli Tyre SpA has been active for two years with two extremely modern factories for the production of car and truck tyres, a market in which the sale of the Milan-based company's products is growing constantly and in massive proportions.
Speaking of the ASCC series, Paul Hembery, Director of Pirelli Competizioni, said, "This is a championship which is clearly undergoing a phase of growth; it has notable expansion possibilities as well as interesting drivers and teams, able to assure the public and mass media of extremely spectacular racing with cars of great emotional impact, such as those of Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, Mitsubishi and others.
"So to be the exclusive tyre supplier to the series is a promotional vehicle - as well as an excellent commercial channel - of prime importance for Pirelli products in a situation which is moving to-wards the future faster than a GT racing car. And that is without considering that four times the cars entered for the 2007 ASCC championship will compete on modern circuits like Sepang and Shanghai, which are already points of reference for world motor sport.
"As far as the tyres are concerned, it should be pointed out that our PZero Racing tyres have fully satisfied the organizers and promoters of this championship, which is further proof of the high quality standards of motor racing products created by Pirelli".
This year, the Pirelli-shod Asian SuperCar Challenge program comprises ten races, which will take place in these five periods:
* 24-25 March Zhuhai, China
* 26-27 May Zhuhai, China
* 23-24 June Sepang, Malaysia
* 18-19 August Shanghai, China
* 15-16 September Zhuhai, China.
For more information and pictures on Pirelli's motorsport activities visit: www.pirellicompetizioni.com
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