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    HERITAGE

    Motorsport has always been an integral part of Dunlop's heritage and success in Australia. It was during February 21-25 in 1905, that Henry Barton James, an employee with Dunlop, conducted the Dunlop Reliability Motor Contest, a trial from Sydney to Melbourne over a distance of 572 miles.  This was the first major motorsport event in Australia and only the fourth such event in the world.  This trial was over all classes of road and attracted twenty three cars of which seventeen finished.

    Over a century after that very first Australian motorsport event, Dunlop has established an impressive record in all forms of motorsport, both on two and four wheels.

    Formula 1

    During 1958-1970,  Dunlop achieved 84 Formula 1 Grand Prix Victories.

    Australia's own Jack Brabham won back-to-back World Championship titles for Cooper in 1959/1960 on Dunlops.

    Jackie Stewart also won his first world title (1969) on Dunlops before the company withdrew from Formula 1.

    LeMans 24 Hour

    Dunlop acheived 34 victories out of  71 LeMans 24hour races which is the oldest, toughest, longest and arguably most prestigious endurance race in the world.

    1920's -  Dunlop and Bentley scored their first  victory in 1920 and later  won in 1927, 1928 and 1929.

    1930's -  Another successful decade for Dunlop winning in 1930 (Bentley), 1935 (Lagonda), 1937 (Bugatti), 1938 (Delahaye) and 1939 (Bugatti).

    1950's  - Dunlop victories with C & D type Jaguars in 1951, 1953, 1955, 1956 & 1957).  These victories helped by the development and adoption of Dunlop disc brake technology from 1953.

    1960's - Victories for Ferrari and Dunlop in 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964

    1970's - Start of the Porsche domination at Le Mans 24 hour.  Wins with Dunlop in 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987.

    The year 1988 marked Dunlop's centenary celebration.  It was 100 years after John Boyd Dunlop's invention of the pneumatic tyre and  Le Mans was chosen as the focus for the company's centenary celebrations.

    The race brought another 1-2 for Dunlop, the Jaguar XJR-9 of Jan Lammers, Andy Wallace and Johnny Dumfries, beating the Porsche 962 of Hans Stuck, Derek Bell and Klaus Ludwig.

    Bathurst 24hour Race

    Australia's first major 24hour motor race was held at Bathurst's Mt Panorama circuit on the 16th & 17th November, 2002.

    The Bathurst 24hour Race is equivalent of running 4 Bathurst 1000's back to back.

    In 2002, the Dunlop shod, factory backed GMH Monaro won the very first Bathurst 24hour race. With the MT 900R Mosler finishing 2nd Dunlop got the quinella. 

    The vehicle in 3rd place finished 27 laps behind the winning Monaro.

    Dunlop repeated this feat in the 2003 Bathurst 24 hour with a 1-2 finish for the 2 car GMH backed Monaro team

    Touring Cars International

    Touring car racing has been a stronghold of Dunlop for many decades, ever since 1970 when Dunlop withdrew from Formula 1 to concentrate on Touring Cars and World Rally Championship.

    1970's - Touring Car racing was a big spectacle graced by many Formula 1 stars - the Dunlop shot Group 2, 3 litre BMW CSI and 2.8 Ford Capri RS driven by Amon, Muir and Lauda and Stuck (BMW).  Glemser, Mass, Steward and Scheckter (Ford) dominating the early part of the decade.

    In 1973, the  Monza 4 hour was won by the Lauda/Muir BMW.

    1980's - The ETC (European Touring Car) continued pitting the Dunlop shot Rover Vitesse team of Tom Walkinshaw Racing against old rivals from BMW, and new ones like Volvo.

    1990's - Regulations changed, and the ETC disappeared to be replaced in Germany by the DTM.  In 1990 and 1991, Dunlop and Audi scored championship wins. 

    The 2-litre series that became the mainstay of the national championships throughout Europe.

    2000 - The revival of DTM with new regulations and support from Audi, Mercedes and Opel.  Dunlop also became the sole supplier to the DTM championship.

    2003 - Dunlop is also the sole supplier to the British Touring Car Championship.

    Touring Cars Australia

    From a minor support category making up the race programs of the late 1950's, Touring Cars evolved through various forms and grew steadily in popularity.  By the early 1960s they had their own Australian Championship, that grew from a single race in 1960 (won by a Jaguar!) into a multi-race series by 1969.

    Such was the category's growth that by the mid-1970s, the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) had become the most popular and competitive series in the country. Eventually, it evolved further into today's V8 Supercars.

    1980 - Peter Brock (Marlboro-HDT Holden Commodore) wins the Australian Touring Car Championship on Dunlops.

    1981 - Dick Johnson (Tru Blu Ford Falcon) wins the fist of five ATCC titles on Dunlops.

    1981 - Allan Moffat debuts the revolutionary Mazda RX7 racer on Dunlops, winning on debut the Sandown 400 endurance race - without a tyre change.

    1982 - Dick Johnson (Tru Blu Tuff Ford Falcon) wins the ATCC again on Dunlops.

    1983 - Allan Moffat (Mazda RX7) wins the ATCC on Dunlops.

    1984 - Dick Johnson (Greens Tuff Ford Falcon) wins the ATCC on Dunlops.

    1986 - John Bowe (Volvo 240T) introduces the first Dunlop radials to Touring Car racing mid-season with immediate success. The factory Volvo team switched tyre brands to take advantage of the improved Dunlop tyre performance.

    1988 - Dick Johnson (Shell Ford Sierra) clinches his fourth ATCC title on Dunlops.

    1989 - Dick Johnson (Shell Ford Sierra) clinches his record fifth and last ATCC title on Dunlops.

    V8 Supercars

    V8 Supercars was a new category born in 1993 pitting Holden's Commodore against Ford's Falcon. Under the professional leadership of a newly formed organisation,  AVESCO, it quickly grew into the most popular and successful motorsport competition Australia has ever seen.

    It began as an 'open tyre' formula but switched to a 'control tyre' at the beginning of the 1999 season.  Dunlop became the 'control tyre' at the start of the 2002 season.

    1993 - Dick Johnson (Shell Ford Falcon) wins the first ever V8 Supercar championship race on Dunlop tyres.Dick Johnson (Shell Ford Falcon) wins the first ever V8 Supercar championship race on Dunlop tyres.

    1993 - Larry Perkins/Gregg Hansford (Castrol Holden Commodore) wins Dunlop's first Bathurst 1000 race of the V8 Supercar era.

    1994 - Dick Johnson/John Bowe (Shell Ford Falcon) wins the Sandown 500 race on Dunlop tyres.

    1994 - Dick Johnson/John Bowe (Shell Ford Falcon) wins the Bathurst 1000 on Dunlop tyres - completing the Sandown-Bathurst endurance race double.

    1995 - John Bowe (Shell Ford Falcon) wins Dunlop's first Shell Championship Series for V8 Supercars.

    1995 - Larry Perkins/Russell Ingall (Castrol Holden Commodore) wins the Bathurst 1000 on Dunlop tyres.

    1997 - Larry Perkins/Russell Ingall (Castrol Holden Commodore) wins the Bathurst 1000.

    2002 - Dunlop entered into its first year of a three year contract with the V8 Supercars as the official control tyre.

    2002 - John Bowe (Ozemail Falcon) sets the fastest ever lap of the Mt Panorama (Bathurst) circuit (2m 08.387 secs) during practice for the Bathurst 1000.

    2002 - Mark Skaife/Jim Richards (Mobil Holden Commodore) wins the Bathurst 1000 on the Dunlop control tyre.

    2002 - Mark Skaife (Mobil Holden Commodore) wins the V8 Supercar Championship Series on the Dunlop control tyre.

    2002 - Paul Dumbrell (IRC Holden Commodore) wins the Konica V8
    Supercar series on the Dunlop control tyre.

    2003 - Marcos Ambrose (Stone Brothers Racing) wins the V8 Supercar Championship series on the Dunlop Control Tyre.

    2003 - Mark Winterbottom wins the Konica Minolta V8 series.

    2004 - Marcos Ambrose wins back to back Championships, taking the V8 championship crown for the second year running.

    2004 - Russell Ingall makes it one, two for Stone Brothers Racing taking out second place in the 2004 V8 Supercar championship.

    2004 - Andrew Jones wins the Konica Minolta V8 series.

    2005 - Dunlop extends its contract to be the official control tyre for the V8 Supercars for the next three years until 2007.

    2005 – Russell Ingall goes one better and wins the V8 Supercar Championship once again for Stone Brothers Racing on the Dunlop control tyre.

    2005 – Dean Canto wins the Konica Minolta V8 series.

    2006 – Rick Kelly takes the V8 Supercar Championship for Holden after a battle to the wire with Ford’s Craig Lowndes.

    2006 – Adam Macrow wins the Fujitsu V8 series on Dunlop control tyres.

    Rally

    Modern rallying, with special stages run over closed roads, dates back to the early 1960's, and was first established in Scandinavia.  The Monte Carlo Rally dates back to 1911 when rallies were largely regularity trials whose results were settled by a series of driving tests at the finish.

    1930's - Dunlop became a major supplier of tyres in Rally.

    1953 - A European Championship was established.

    1960 - The Championship received major recognition form the car manufacturers.

    1962-1967 - Dunlop and BMC partnership won 25 European Championship rallies.

    Dunlop was not only a partner of BMC, - the factory teams of Lancia, Porsche, Saab, Sunbeam, Triumph, Rover and Volvo were also supplied by Dunlop.

    1973 - The World Championship was introduced with the East African Safari, then driven over 5000kms with just two overnight halts in four days.

    During the 1970's,  Dunlop dominated with wins in 1973 (Toyota), 1972 and 1977(Ford) and in 1974 and 1976 (Mitsubishi).

    1979 - Ford and Dunlop are World Rally Champions, the culmination of a 9 year partnership during which the RAC Rally was won for seven consecutive years, including a personal hat-trick for Timo Makinen.

    Australian Championships

    1989-1999 - Dunlop was associated with Neal Bates, and within that time, he won 3 Australian championships driving for Toyota in 1993, 1994 and 1995.

    Motorcycle

    The first official motorcycle races started in 1904 with the Motorcycle Club of France's Coupe Internationale contested by teams of Denmark, Germany, France, Great Britain and Austria.

    Dunlop have won 113 World Champion road race titles, during the period since the World Championship was established in 1949.

    1949-2006 - There have been a total of 2465 Grands Prix in the solo classes during this period and Dunlop riders have won 1271 (51.6%) of these.

     

    Australia

    Dunlop has been the dominant force in Australian motorcycle racing for several decades now and the brand’s successes date back to the very beginnings of motorcycle sport at the start of the 20th century.

    Road Racing

    In the modern era, the two premiere categories of motorcycle road racing are Superbike, being modified 1000cc street machines running on slick tyres and Supersport , 600cc capacity modified street machines running on road legal, patterned tyres.

    Since the inception of these two categories early in the 1990s, Dunlop riders have won ten Superbiketitles including five consecutive titles between 1994 –1998,plus a further four between 2000 –2003.

    Most recently, Yamaha Racing Team rider Jamie Stauffer dominated the 2006 season on his R1 SP Yamaha, taking a commanding win in the national Superbike Championship.

    Dunlop’s record in Supersport is just as impressive , winning 10 championships in the 14 year history of this category since 1993 – more than all other manufacturers combined.

    Completing the double for both Yamaha and Dunlop , Jamie Stauffer also won the 2006 Australian Supersport Championship in a spectacular display that saw him wrap up the title well before the season end . Dunlop riders also filled second, third and fourth positions in the final points tally.

    Motocross

    The Australian Motocross and Supercross scene has been dominated Dunlop shod ‘bikes for decades. Dunlop’s scorecard includes 14 consecutive victories in the Australian Motocross Championships and 11 consecutive Supercross titles.

    Most recently in 2006 , Team Motorex KTM’s Ryan Marmont sealed both the Supercross and Motocross lites Championships , adding two more titles to Dunlop’s growing list.

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