SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1537671
SCORE JOURNAL: WHEN WORKING CLOSELY WITH BAJA RACERS, WHAT ARE THE THINGS THEY REQUIRE MOST FROM THEIR PARTNERSHIP WITH A TIRE COMPANY? Nate Hunt - BFG: Of course, the tires themselves, but BFGoodrich takes great pride in its tradition of providing race support and pit program for the teams that use our tires. The course mapping service is a huge component of that. We feel like we're partners with the racers – not just tire vendors – and we're out there in the desert with them. We take their feedback and use it to make our products better, which helps us improve as a company and helps them win races. Another key to BFGoodrich's support of Baja racing is having a tire technician attend every SCORE race. This allows BFGoodrich to get firsthand feedback from our racers on how tires perform, what changes they would like to see in the future, and provide tire pressure and setup recommendations. Matt Hanlon - BFG: The most important part of the partnership between racers and the tire company is the collaboration. It isn't like buying a product off a supermarket shelf where the buyer is at the mercy of whatever the supplier wanted to produce. There is a constant dialogue between racers and the design team at BFG. We try to react to what we hear back from our racers, both during the race and in private testing. We wouldn't be able to make nearly the same level of tire without such a committed team of racers that work with us. Sean Kleinshuster - Tensor: We want to win races! This is the main item we are asking for from our partnerships. Baja is the ultimate R&D test bed. With racing and winning in Baja, we are able to develop product that is better suited for the everyday driver. Adrian Puente - Toyo: Partnership is everything. At Toyo Tires, we fully support our drivers in all their efforts, both on and off the course. We believe in sharing the same vision and achieving our goals together, side by side. Nate Hunt Adrian Puente SCORE JOURNAL 63 SCORE HERITAGE SCORE JOURNAL 63 TIRE SPECIAL SECTION