Yokohama to participate in Indian Rally Championship

Japanese tyre manufacturer Yokohama is all set to participate in Indian Rally Championship. Yokohama India,for the first time, will introduce TEAM YOKOHAMA for the Indian Rally Championship (IRC) being held at Nashik from 13-15 June, 2014 by the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India.

Indian Rally Championship (IRC) is a rallying series organized by the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India. The Nashik leg of the rally has a total Distance of 621.31 km’s, where all special Road Surface Stages are ASPHALT.

The unveiling of the team colours, will take place at the 1st round of the 3rd edition of the FMSCI- Indian Rally Championship, at Nashik, from 13 June 2014. Representing Team Yokohama India would be Rahul Kanthraj for the 2000 CC category and Vikram Devdasen, (Currently Ranked 3rd in India) for the 1600 cc category.

Sanjay Chatterjee, General Manager Sales for Yokohama India said, “This is first time that we are participating as a team, hence this is a special moment for us. We started supporting only one car during the 2007 Raid De Himalaya and now we have our own team.”

“Today majority of rally drivers prefer using the Yokohama rally tyre only because of their durability and unmatched performance. “In these rallies a car’s endurance is tested to the limits and the tyre being the only point of ground contact for the car is tested beyond it’s ultimate strength” Chatterjee further added.

Yokohama in India has been part of Motorsports activities since 2007. While it has won the Himalayan car Rallys for three consecutive years, 2009, 2010 & 2011, Yokohama India has had podium finishes at all rally the company has participated in.

The 2014 season of nine rounds will have three rounds in the East zone (Baripada, Kolkata and Ranchi), one each in North (Jaipur) and West (Nashik) and four in the south (Chikmagalur, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Chennai).

Globally other than replacement tyres business, Yokohama tyres is the original equipment suppliers to many top of the line car manufacturers like Audi, Honda, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Suzuki and Toyota.