In their first six months in Australia, MRF rally tyres have already had an impact on the sport, with a great response from competitors in state and club events.
James Rodda on his way to winning round one of the 2016 MRF Tyres South Australian Rally Championship.As the naming rights sponsor of the Queensland and South Australian rally championships, MRF Tyres are well represented across the country.
In South Australia, James Rodda took out the opening round of the championship using MRF tyres on the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 formerly driven by Gaurav Gill of Team MRF Tyres in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.
“We found that the tyres had great grip levels, as well as plenty of tyre life,” Rodda said.“With the strong sidewalls we found that we could run the tyres at a lower pressure, which helped to improve grip, but didn’t increase the tyre wear.
“We’ll do some testing before our next event to refine the setting on the car, but we were really impressed with a first up run on the MRFs.”
MRF Tyres SA distributor, Mark Povey, also performed well, finishing in the top six in his Datsun Stanza.
In Queensland, Rob Bishop was using MRF’s soft compound tyre and was leading the first round of the championship with two stages to run, only to get caught in the dust of the car in front. He eventually finished second, just four seconds from victory.
“Any concerns I had were soon laid to rest after we had completed the first two stages and the MRFs showed hardly any signs of wear,” Bishop said.
“The MRFs offered exceptional grip on all road surfaces we encountered during the rally. We had no problem completing the entire rally on one set of soft compound tyres, which are still good enough to start another event on.
“I will definitely be running the rest of the season on MRF soft compound tyres, and I cannot recommend them enough.”
The overall winner of the first round, Tristan Carrigan, will use MRF Tyres in the second round of the championship this weekend.
Darren Baker also performed well in his two-wheel drive Nissan Silvia.
“I have been wanting to try MRF tyres since watching the Skodas at Rally Queensland. They were always the last to brake for corners and never seemed to be lacking grip. So when I found out MRFs where available in Australia, I was straight onto the phone,” Baker said.
“I used softs and they ended up lasting the whole rally - 129km of racing, 157km of liaison - a total of 286km on four tyres. All we did was rotate them front to back at each service.
“The grip was fantastic all day. I can't believe how well they gripped and how little wear they had.”
Across the country in Western Australia, Michael Ross finished the opening round of the state championship as the leading two-wheel drive car, and was thrilled with the performance of his MRF tyres.
Ross was one of seven drivers who used the Indian-made tyres in the event.
Five Victorian drivers enjoyed the grip and performance of MRF Tyres in the first round of the championship in March, namely Warren Lee, Andrew Murdoch, Andrew Pannam, Stephen Eccles and Tim Erwin.
Furthering their support of Australian rallying, MRF Tyres having also taken up naming rights sponsorship of the third round of the WA Rally Championship, the Boddington Rally on June 5. The company will also sponsor the Akademos Rally in Victoria for the second year running.
“It is a great pleasure to welcome MRF Tyres as a naming sponsor for round 3 of the West Australian Rally championships (WARC) 2016,” Clerk of Course, Wendy Walker said.
“This event is a return to the Boddington area with fantastic new roads. The roads are within a farming area and blue gum plantations.
“We are passionate about our sport and hope we will have a lasting relationship with MRF Tyres.”
“Helping state championship events, which is backbone of Australian rallying, is a priority for MRF Tyres, and we are looking at various ways to promote young drivers from various states in Australia,” MRF Competition Tyres (Australia / NZ) and Mentor Tyres CEO, Vivek Ponnusamy, said.
"The tyres have performed very well and we are looking forward to further development. Our data and comments from the drivers show that our tyres are a universal one and performs very well in all weather / terrains. This is encouraging and there is lots more to come.
“We are also on the verge of developing another two compounds, along with our soft and medium tyres, by end of this year. So come 2017, we will have the choice of three to four compounds to choose from, and two or more patterns in each size,” Ponnusamy added.
MRF Tyres is thrilled to support Australian rallying and are here to support all forms of motorsports, including racing, go-karts and motocross events.
For more information, contact exclusive importer, Mentor Tyres, on 0424 246611 or via email at vivek@mentortyres.com
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