Driving his works BMW X3 CC equipped with BFGoodrich's newAll-Terrain tyre, Nasser Al- Attiyah produced a resounding win on this weekend's Baja Espana. The Qatar -based driver finished ahead of Spain'sNani Roma (Mitsubishi Pajero Evo/BFGoodrich) who was the only driver of the three-car Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart line-up to reach the finish.
Nasser Al-Attiyah'ssuperb run over the tracks of the Zaragoza region was a great reward for the hard work put in recently by BFGoodrich's engineers, development staff and technicians who have spent more than a year developing the brand's new rally -raid tyre, the All-Terrain.
Following its ten FIA Cross-Country Rally World Cup titles and eight Dakar wins with the Rock T/A, BFGoodrich knew that it needed to develop a new product in order to keep pace with the technical evolution of the discipline'scars and increasingly fiercer competition.
A new rally-raid tyre calls for thousands of kilometres of testing because it has to be tried and evaluated over a wide variety of terrains, ranging from sand to rocky terrain and mud. Thanks to the collaboration of its partners Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and BMW, the new All-Terrain covered more than 5,000km before its debut on last May'sRali Transiberico which was seen as a full-scale test session that enabled BFGoodrich's staff to collect a considerable amount of valuable data.
After the Rali Transiberico, the All-Terrain was put though its paces over several thousand more kilometres before being chosen by the BMW X-Raid and Repsol Mitsubishi Ralliart teams for their factory cars on the Baja Espana-Aragon'08, round three of the 2008 FIA International Cup for Cross-Country Bajas.
“Our objective was to get in as many competitive kilometres with the tyre as possible in order to gain experience before next year's Dakar," observed BFGoodrich Technician Dominique Bravy.
"This weekend's result exceeds our expectations thanks to Nasser Al-Attiyah's great win and Roma's fine second place. The first leg's stages were very rough, almost like Morocco, and several drivers collected punctures after hitting bit rocks. Even so, the day enabled us to show that the new All-Terrain tyre is both competitive and durable."
"BFGoodrich is the number one tyre manufacturer in rally-raids and we intend to keep it that way. The new All-Terrain is the way ahead for BFGoodrich. It also underlines the brand's ongoing commitment to the discipline," declared Frédéric Henry - Biabaud, BFGoodrich Competition Director.