MRF ZG2 tyres help Lance take 3rd outright at round-4 of NZRC
Published On 27-Jul-2016
Performing to their best in a rally, MRF ZG2 tyres helped Lance Williams take the third outright in Rally of Gisborne, the fourth round of New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC).
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Lance Willams in his Subaru Impreza WRX at NZRC[/caption]
The soft and medium compounds on the ZG2 helped Williams and Co-driver Raymond “Crunch” Bennett brilliantly steer their Subaru Impreza WRX through the damp and cold conditions on the track while the Kevlar sidewalls of the tyres provided the much needed durability to take on such harsh tracks.
Vivek Ponnusamy, MRF Competition Tyres (Australia / NZ) and Mentor Tyres CEO, said., “This was our first official outing in NZRC this year and we are very happy to see that the tyres performed extremely well."
He added, “The conditions were challenging with temperature of less than five degrees and damp roads. Lance used both soft and medium compound. The strategy worked perfectly.”
Both, the driver and co-driver, were in for a surprise with the performance of the MRF tyres and hope to reduce their stage time in races to come.
"We started the event just a little bit nervous as we didn't really know what to expect and we did not have any testing on the new tyres, but by the time we started the second stage, we had confidence to brake later into the corners," Bennett explained.
While congratulating Williams and Bennett for their exemplary performance, Ponnusamy expressed that NZRC has been a great place for MRF and that the company is focusing on the next round of NZRC .
He elaborated, "The new ZG2 tyres have performed extremely well for New Zealand conditions. The Kevlar sidewalls didn't let us down and the tyres also seem to accentuate the steering precision as there doesn't seem to be any tyre 'Walk'. So when we get to Coromandel Rally, the next round of the championship, we will be looking to improve by half a second a kilometre with some ideas we are shortly going to test.”
“That’s half a second/km in tyre performance, and we know that once the tyres perform better, the driver confidence grows at the same rate. There are exciting times ahead!”.
MRF Tyres and Mentor Tyres would continue to support the New Zealand Rally Championship in 2017 and beyond. The 5th and the final round of NZRC-2016 would see the drivers testing their mettle at the Gold Rush Rally of Coromandel on 20th August,2016.
