From a press release issued by Dunlop’s advertising and public relations agency, Vreeke & Associates:

For Immediate Release – March 6, 2004

Dunlop previews tire selections for Daytona 200

Daytona Beach, FL – Dunlop-supported factory Superbike teams have settled on their tire selections to start the legendary 63rd Daytona 200 on Saturday, March 6 at Daytona International Speedway.

“We’ve worked closely with the teams to sort through several options,” said Dunlop Road Racing Manager Jim Allen. “Each team is planning to start with the softest of the three rear tires available. They have performed well in practice and qualifying.” Allen added that the teams have also opted to use the same front tire design, which is a medium compound.

Dunlop supplies Superbike tires to two factory teams consisting of five riders. Four-time Daytona 200 winner Miguel Duhamel, his Honda Racing teammate Ben Bostrom and Erion Racing’s Jake Zemke are competing on Honda’s new CBR1000RR. Yoshimura Suzuki’s four-time AMA Superbike champion Mat Mladin, himself a two-time Daytona 200 winner, will contest the race together with teammate Aaron Yates on the proven GSX-R1000.

Tire selection is unique to every track and Daytona International Speedway puts more stress on tires than any other motorcycle track in the world. “We typically talk about soft, medium and hard compounds,” said Allen. “But this label is only relevant to each track. So a soft tire at Daytona must still handle the g-force and heat generated on the banking here. It would be considered to be very hard at any other track.”

With the increasing sophistication, horsepower and top speed of today’s Superbikes, excessive tire heat is an ever-increasing challenge. It is not unusual for the effects of gravity (g-force) to exceed a factor of two on the Daytona high banks. This means that a Superbike and rider circling the banking at 180-plus mph effectively weigh more than 1200 pounds. Compounding the problem is the differential in speed between the front and rear tires. The massive horsepower produced by the current Superbikes can easily cause the rear tire to spin almost all the way around Daytona’s banking. As the tire slips, it generates even more heat. In addition, because the motorcycle’s suspension is compressed by g-force loading, the tire sidewalls must flex to absorb surface bumps and transitions. These forces combine to exert significant heat-generating loads that are transmitted across a narrow band on the left side of the rear tire while the bike circulates the banking for relatively long periods of time.

“We’ve built on our success at the latest tire test here in January,” said Allen. “Daytona is not just about going fast, it’s about going about fast and sustaining tire performance and tire integrity over many laps.”