Michelin's new GW Tyre takes the rough with the smooth

MICHELIN'S NEW GW TYRE TAKES THE ROUGH WITH THE SMOOTH Following Michelin's resounding World Rally Championship victories on the snow of Sweden and the fast tarmac of Spain and Corsica, the rough gravel of Cyprus might have given hopes to the opposition. However Michelin development engineers had been working on a new secret weapon, the GW tyre and in record time this new tyre had been designed tested and adopted by the teams and drivers. And the result? Another one-two triumph, Michelin's fourth consecutive manufacturers maximum points haul of the season. A triumph too for Peugeot, Marcus Gronholm battling through to extend his WRC drivers points tally to 31, eleven clear of team-mate Gilles Panizzi with Britain's reigning World Champion, Richard Burns, now up to third. In the Manufacturers league Peugeot-Michelin has a massive 41 points lead ahead of Ford and Subaru. Cyprus in the spring brings unpredictable weather: torrential rain drenching stages and turning the verges into mud. Gronholm and Colin McRae battled all weekend but on the final day the pressure told and McRae rolled twice. Burns had his own battle going on and this was only resolved on the very last stage with the help of the new GW tyre. Burns put in a stunning stage time through the mud to collect the silver medal and valuable Championship points. The new Michelin GW tyre has been designed to meet the rigours of both Cyprus and the other hot, rough event, the Acropolis Rally in Greece in June. The superb, out-of-the-box performance of the new GW tyre is best illustrated by Gronholm's speed on the first stage of the final leg when the Finn took a massive 12.6 seconds off McRae's lead in just 19 kilometres. On two wheels the Michelin success story continues. The World Superbike series was in Sugo, Japan and Colin Edwards (Honda-Michelin) took victory in race one and the runner-up slot in race two to become the first non-Japanese winner since Carl Foggarty in 1995also on Michelin. At Welkom in South Africa Tohru Ukawa (Honda-Michelin) scored his maiden GP victory ahead of team-mate and championship leader Valentino Rossi. The first nine finishers were all equipped with Michelin race rubber. ENDS For further information contact Stuart McCrudden Associates Tel: 01621 892814 Fax: 01621 892815 E-mail: enquiries@smapr.net Ian Hughes Michelin Press Office Tel 07802 402000 Fax: 01782 402040 Ref: PR 220402 Issue date: 22 April 2002 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/04/22/20020422BIT01380/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/04/22/20020422BIT01380/wkr0002.pdf