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Dunlop Engineer Drives Tire Rack One Lap of America
AKRON, Ohio, May 5, 2006 — For Dunlop Tire engineer Eric Luecke, a competitor in the 2006 Tire Rack Cannonball One Lap of America, only one performance tire brand will do on Saturday.
Luecke, of Doylestown, Ohio, is sharing driving duties in a 2005 Mercedes-Benz CLK500 and assisting a diesel-powered 2005 Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI, both outfitted with Dunlop SP Sport Maxx™ ultra-performance tires.
Dunlop is sponsoring the two teams in the 23rd running of the famous driving challenge.
Luecke said he faces 4,000 miles of travel in a week – and very little sleep – including a 1,000-mile overnight commute from Iowa to Louisiana. “It’s an endurance test of driver, car and tires. We’ll face a variety of challenges from a wet and dry skid-pad, a quarter-mile drag strip, a semi-banked asphalt oval and several classic road courses.”
One Lap of America consists of 12 vehicle classes and attracts a variety of cars and drivers; amateurs and professionals alike will be driving everything from highly specialized Ultima GTRs, Nobles and Radicals to super-tuned Vipers, Corvette Z06s and Porsche 911s to daily-driver Dodge Neons and Honda Civics.
Luecke, a tire engineer with a professional test driving background, will be joining Billy Mains, a Toledo, Ohio, car owner and offshore powerboat champion, and Faisal Ahmad, West Bloomfield, Mich., who is a Solo 1 autocross champion in the CLK500 for the luxury sedan class.
The Mercedes E320 CDI, entered in the alternate fuel class, will be driven by Bedford, Mich., car owner Skip Kuhn; Jack Baruth, Powell, Ohio, a former professional BMX rider; and Brian Makse, Toronto, professional car racer and driving instructor.
Both cars are hand-prepared with Kleeman modifications at Motorwerks Group LLC (www.motorwerksgroup.com) in Commerce Township, Mich., which is owned by Satish Tummala and managed by Mains. Motorwerks is known internationally for its Mercedes engine modifications and transplants.
Luecke said Dunlop’s SP Sport Maxx ultra-performance tire is ideally suited for the extreme driving event. SP Sport Maxx tire “enables drivers to experience pure racing-inspired technology every day. We focused our research and development efforts on ultimate wet and dry handling capabilities, because that’s what sport-oriented, passionate drivers of powerful cars expect most from their tires.”
This year’s challenge begins May 6 at Tire Rack’s headquarters in South Bend, Ind., and drivers will travel at legal speeds on highways from the Midwest to Southeast U.S. and back a week later, while measuring and scoring their performance at each competition venue they visit.
One Lap drivers will make stops at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Ill.; Mid-America Motorplex in Pacific Junction, Iowa; No Problem Raceway Park in Belle Rose, La.; Roebling Road Raceway in Bloomingdale, Ga.; Florence Motor Speedway in Florence, S.C.; Virginia International Raceway in Danville, Va.; Putnam Park Road Course in Mount Meridian, Ind.; U.S. 41 International Dragway in Morocco, Ind.; and Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.
For more details on the schedule, go to www.onelapofamerica.com.
Dunlop is a global tire brand with an excellent reputation among performance car enthusiasts. Well known for its prestigious Original Equipment fitments and sports car racing heritage, Dunlop is also a key supplier to sport compact enthusiasts featuring "tuner" tire sizes and race series sponsorships.
To learn more about the competition and to keep track of the teams’ driving adventures, click here for daily updates.
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