After extensive preparation, the JIC Magic / Hankook Tire Porsche rolled out of the transporter ready for competition.  The Porsche hit the track in its inaugural runs on New Jersey’s English Township Raceway; a new track recently added to the Formula Drift Circuit.  Having never raced at this venue before, the JIC Magic / Hankook Tire Team went to work, fine tuning the Porsche to suit the needs of this high speed course.  This course begins with a high speed straightaway leading to a wide left turn with the first clipping point just mere inches away from the dirt, followed by a sharp left with an inside second clipping point, finishing off with a wide right to the checkered flag.  Piloted by Tyler McQuarrie, the Porsche recorded the highest entry speed out of all the other competitors at over 80 miles per hour, while maintaining a deep angle with the help of the high gripping Hankook Ventus RS-2 Tires. 

Hankook Tire Co., Lpd. and Corsa Motorsports have reached an agreement for Hankook to be a sponsor and the exclusive tire supplier for Corsa Motorsports and will compete in the 2008 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in the GT2 Class.

ALMS is the premier road racing competition in North America. The sponsorship within the series will be a showcase for Hankook performance tire technology. It is the logical next step in the marketing and brand-building efforts to position Hankook as a market-driven technology-focused global brand.

“For Hankook, this is about showcasing our technology on the premier stage of road racing,” said Bill Bainbridge, Director of Brand Communication for Hankook Tire America Corp. “We are as devoted to winning on race day as Corsa Motorsports.”

The second annual NASA National Championships at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course gathered together the top drivers from all over the country, each vying for the title of NASA Nationals Champion in their respective classes. Competitors using Hankook Ventus racing tires scored an impressive six championship titles and 12 total podium finishes.

Hankook offered up to $130,000 in cash and tire certificates for racers competing on their high performance Ventus DOT Competition tires. The top driver in each class earned $1,000 for winning their division. Hankook Tires also provided free trackside support for many of the drivers using the racing tires. 

“We wanted to give something back and show our appreciation to the racers that bought our tires throughout the year. Anyone can give away contingency, so we wanted to go above and beyond by truly supporting the racers at the track,” said Jeff Koehler, Hankook Tire Motorsports Marketing Manager.

Hankook Driver Joel Lipperini won the second race of the SCCA season at the Nelson Ledges track in Ohio.  Lipperini, competing in the SCC (Showroom Stock C) class took first place after running a hard fought race in a backup Honda Civic Si due to a mechanical failure with his Mazdaspeed Miata.

With no time previously behind the wheel of this backup Civic Si, Joel was concerned how the car would perform. Armed only with two seasons worth of race notes, Lipperini’s team prepped the car to compete. With little time left before the first qualifying session, the crew rolled the backup car out onto the grid. From the opening qualifying session, Lipperini grabbed the pole position in class beating out the competition by over a full second.

Joel’s first place qualifying time was within a few hundredths of a second of his previous track record set in 2006 in the primary SSC car. Unfortunately in the second qualifying round, the backup Si succumbed to the same transmission issues troubling his primary car.

North America’s first drifting Porsche debuted this weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., to much fanfare.  The near sell-out crowd waited in anticipation as Hankook Tire/JIC USA Drift Team’s Porsche made its debut.  Driver Tyler McQuarrie finally got valuable seat time in the practice sessions before his unfortunate encounter with the wall in his first competitive run in the new car. The damage was not too severe but just enough to keep the Porsche out of contention for the rest of the day.

The only rear-engined sports car on the North American drifting circuit, the Porsche has great potential as a drift machine but is also a totally new platform in a sport focused on extreme power, performance, and style.  The Hankook Tire/JIC USA Drift Team is now focused on getting the Porsche ready for the next Formula Drift competition in Wall, N.J. on Sept. 8.

“We’ve had a few issues with the debut of this car, so it felt really good to get out there and get a little competition under my belt,” said McQuarrie, who is currently ranked 11th in the overall Formula Drift standings.  “We’ve got some work to do before Wall, N.J., but we’ve learned some things today and we’re all looking forward to taking the next step and being that much better next time.”

At the first annual Hankook Tire Ultimate Track Car Challenge, World Challenge veteran Tommy Archer proved that the Dodge Viper Competition Coupe is the ultimate American track car. His 1:28.401 lap on Virginia International Raceway’s North Course beat an amazing field including Mosler Intruder pilot Chet Fillip, World Challenge Audi driver Chip Herr, and many others in highly modified machines. 

The event was held on July 27 and drew entrants from as far away as California. The car featured in the race ranged in budget from less than $2,000 to more than $200,000.  Sponsored by Hankook Tire, Spax shocks, MSD Ignition and StopTech brakes, the Hankook Ultimate Track Car Challenge’s goal was to find who had America’s fastest track car. 

Before the participants were selected, more than 100 competitor entries built team pages on CarDomain.com. After millions of members voted for their favorite cars, the editors at Grassroots Motorsports magazine used the results to whittle down the entries to three dozen teams.

Hankook driver Lee Niffenegger captured the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Showroom Stock B (SSB) Division Championship with first place wins at the Autobahn Raceway and the Nelson Ledges Road Course.  These two races give Niffenegger six straight victories in the national competition and clinched the 2007 season SCCA CENDIV SSB points title.

At the first SCCA National race at Autobahn Raceway in Joliet, IL on July 15, Niffenegger edged past another Central Division SSB leader, Jack Tippens, with a new track record of 1:43.488.  The two drivers have been very close in previous races throughout the season, but Niffenegger’s Honda Civic Si equipped with Hankook tires continually came out on top of the battles. 

Following the Autobahn race, Niffenegger broke another SSB track record with a 1:18.300 finishing time at the Great Lakes Division race at Nelson Ledges Road Course in Garrettsville, OH.  Niffenegger led the July 29 race flag-to-flag for his sixth victory of the season.  With a perfect 72 points in the season, Niffenegger secured the 2007 Central Division SSB points title as well as the second leg of the SCCA Triple Crown.

Hankook Tire America Corp. (http://www.hankooktireusa.com) is pleased to announce its official tire sponsorship of Chevrolet’s Rev It Up™ 2007: Where Drivers Come to Play (http://www.revitup.com). Hankook will provide more than 500 of its Ventus brand of high-performance tires for five different Chevrolet models. As the “World’s Largest Performance Driving School and National Racing Competition,” Rev It Up 2007 promises to allow amateur racers the opportunity to compete with experienced professionals in a challenge across six cities nationwide.

“Through this driving experience, Hankook Tire has the opportunity to reach 16,000+ automotive enthusiasts at one time,” said Bill Bainbridge, director of brand communication for Hankook Tire. “Not only will competitors be able to experience the vehicle’s performance, but our tire’s handling and ride characteristics as well.”

Hankook will provide Ventus S1evo K107, Ventus V4ES H105, Ventus AS RH07, and Ventus R-S2 Z212 performance tires for five Chevy models including the Impala SS, Cobalt SS Supercharged, TrailBlazer SS, Silverado Pickup and Equinox Sport.

Gerardo Bonilla and Jay Cochran engaged in a close competition for first place in both races at the IMSA Lites Series Northeast Grand Prix.  Presented by Hankook Performance Tires and hosted at the historic Lime Rock Park. The IMSA Lites showcased the best races of the season for a record number of fans. 

In Round 5, Bonilla set a fast pace with a qualifying time of 49.544 seconds and shared the front row with Kerry Jacobson in the #38 Inspire Motorsports/Hankook Tire DP02 Lites 1 entry.  By controlling the race from the first lap, Bonilla gained an impressive win in his #9 BK Motorsports Mazda/Skip Barber Elan DP02, while Cochran finished closely behind in second place. 

“With the help of the new and improved Hankook F200 C91 compound tires, our car handled the best it has all year.  Compared to the beginning of the year, it’s a nice evolution,” explained Bonilla.  “The tires sustain and grip better than our previous tires and they aren’t as sensitive to changes in the weather.”

The Flatoutracing/Hankook Tires team gained its first win of the season during Round 4 of SCCA’s MARRS Series (Mid Atlantic Road Racing Series) at Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, WV on June 17.  Principle driver Jon Kofod was presented a huge challenge when the team switched from the popular ITA class to the faster ITS class only weeks before the race.

“After looking at our chances in ITA, it became apparent that we had more of a chance in ITS.  While it certainly wasn’t going to be easy, we thought we had the pace to possibly win a lot of races in ITS,” stated Kofod before the first ITS race.  “But we had no way of exactly knowing our pace and how we would stack up against the ITS field,” noted Kofod. 

It didn’t help matters that the team qualified second in the morning session, a full half second behind the pole-sitting Datsun 240Z of Jeffrey Lucas.  A few adjustments and a new set of Hankook Ventus Z214 tires put all concerns to rest in the afternoon qualifying.  Kofod shaved off more than a half second to take pole with a 1:27.55, less than one tenth ahead of the Datsun’s morning time.