When Peter Hickman and Jeremy Guarnoni crossed the finish line to win the 6 Heures Moto de Spa-Francorchamps in September, their goal was complete. But for these two seasoned racers, the goal that day wasn’t to win the race. It was to test tires.
The Dunlop Test Team is one of the most interesting development programmes in motorcycle racing. Managed by Steven Casaer (EMC37) with engineers from Dunlop’s technical centre in Montluçon, France, the programme harnesses the expertise of top riders to test the next generation of racing and track day tires in the toughest and most realistic conditions - real races.
“Testing in this environment is different to just testing on a normal track,” Hickman explains. “It means that when we are passing people, we're going off the racing line, trying different parts of the track that we wouldn't do if we're testing on our own. We get to use the tire in a different way and in the type of realistic conditions it’s actually going to get used in.”
Getting data from real-world conditions, where traffic and overtakes make replicating the perfect lap time difficult, gives Dunlop’s engineers more usable data than a typical test session. And when the subjective feedback comes from riders of the calibre of Hickman (the Isle of Man TT lap record holder) and Guarnoni (an FIM Endurance World Champion), the engineers benefit from some of motorcycle racing’s most experienced and knowledgeable riders.
Dunlop brought more than 200 tires to Spa, from development specifications of its KR slick racing tire range, treaded dry weather racing tires to intermediate and wet specifications. Each stint during the race, the riders were fitted with a different rear tire but had no knowledge of what to expect from it. This approach allows Hickman and Guarnoni to give unbiased feedback, comparing it only to the reference tire.
“They don't tell us anything about it so it's a completely blind test,” explains Hickman. “Often, the lap time on the bike is actually blanked off so we can't see it - from our perspective it's all about feel rather than lap time. Every time I ride out of the pits, I know I need to get used to the tire and put in a fast lap time as quickly as I can, obviously without making a mistake! We've just got to go out and ride as hard as we can and give our feedback at the end of it.”
Over the course of the three-day event, Hickman and Guarnoni completed 2,000 km, including 101 laps during the race. Their BMW M1000RR is fitted with 75 sensors measuring more than 300 data points, generating a huge amount of data.
“While we rely on the riders for expert subjective feedback, we measure all the objective data from the garage,” explains Giovanni Dalla Torre, one of Dunlop’s lead Tire Development Engineers for motorcycle racing. “This split allows us to separate the facts from the feedback, both of which are vital to the development process. Having top riders like Peter and Jeremy in the programme means they give us clear, experienced feedback that carries weight when we later introduce the new specifications to our customers and supported teams.”
A number of new tires were tested at Spa, including new soft and supersoft slicks to be added into the Dunlop KR range, a new treaded racing tire, a new front slick and a new wet tire. When developing a new product, the combination of laboratory testing, closed private testing and realistic race testing gives Dunlop’s development team an unparalleled level of detail and quality feedback.
In fact, the recent 6-hour race at Spa was the latest in a varied schedule of outings for the Dunlop Test Team, which often enters national superbike championships across Europe, too. In April, the team participated in the pre-event test for the EWC’s 24 Heures Motos at Le Mans, clocking the second fastest lap time on the opening day.
The results of the Dunlop Test Team’s efforts are seen in some of Europe’s most competitive championships, such as the Spanish ESBK series, where top Superbike and Supersport teams such as BMW Easyrace Team and Team Honda Laglisse choose the latest generation of Dunlop tires to give them the competitive edge over rival teams using other tires. In the Italian CIV series, where Dunlop is the exclusive tire supplier, the Test Team’s constant development allows Dunlop to regularly bring new tires that meet the demands of this highly competitive championship.
“Testing in competitive conditions is the obvious next step after completing the virtual and private testing stages of the development programme,” Dalla Torre adds. “When Dunlop-supported teams are racing in championships as competitive as ESBK, they’re constantly managing traffic and going off line to overtake, all in changing track conditions. At events like the Spa 6 Hours or the Le Mans test day, the data the Dunlop Test Team gathers helps us to fine-tune the next generation of racing tires that will benefit all our customer and partner teams, from world championships to national competitions.”