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<body> <Table Width="550" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0"><TR><TD Width="35"><IMG SRC="//www.totalmotorsport.com/images/spacer.gif" WIDTH="35" HEIGHT="1"></td><td> <CENTER><Table border="0" width="100%"> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="5">GRAND AMERICAN ROAD RACING ASSOCIATION</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">16/10/2003</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="4">2004 Rolex Series Tyre Suppliers Confirmed</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">Goodyear (DP), Dunlop (GT), Hoosier (SGS) set for new season</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="1">  </FONT></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2"><B>2004 Rolex Series Tyre Suppliers Confirmed</B><BR> <BR> <B>Goodyear (DP), Dunlop (GT), Hoosier (SGS) set for new season</B><BR> <BR> Grand American Road Racing Association has announced that Hoosier will join Goodyear and Dunlop as an official tyre supplier to the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series in 2004. Hoosier will supply tyres for the SGS class that currently competes as Grand Sport I in the Grand-Am Cup Series. Goodyear will remain the supplier for the Daytona Prototypes class. Dunlop will continue supplying tyres to the GT class that is expanding for 2004 with the inclusion of the GTS class and new GT specs.<BR> <BR> "With the restructuring we are doing for 2004, the Grand-Am Cup Series is being reduced from four classes to two classes," Director of Competition Mark Raffauf said. "As the contracted supplier to that series we are keeping Hoosier as the supplier for the SGS class to honor the existing contract." Raffauf added that tyre agreements with all three companies extend through the end of the 2004 season.<BR> <BR> Hoosier tyre has announced that the tyre for the new class will be designated as “SGS” and will be the only tyre legal for competition. This tyre is an evolution of the Grand-Am Cup tyre currently in use. It will be produced as a racing slick and will incorporate several refinements to improve performance without sacrificing the wear and consistency that the "GAC" tyre has provided.<BR> <BR> “We have looked very closely at the things that worked in Grand-Am Cup. We knew that the GAC tyre was well suited for the Cup series. We wanted to make sure we kept the excellent qualities and at the same time increase the performance potential for the teams that move into the Rolex series,” said Hoosier Product Manager Mike Kraemer.<BR> <BR> “We could have started from scratch and built an ‘all out’ performance radial slick, and will continue working in that direction for other markets, but in the long run that would not have been in the best interest for the series," he continued. "It is harder to get consistency rather than pure speed out of a racing tyre. We have a successful product in the GAC tyre so we elected to use that as the platform for the new tyre. This evolution will reduce the need for extensive testing and chassis development as well.”<BR> </FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE><BR> </CENTER> <BR><CENTER><font size="1" color="#808080" face="Tahoma">Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport</font></CENTER> </td> </tr> </table> </body>