The nice folks at Michelin invited me down to Austin’s Circuit of The Americas for a full race weekend highlighted by the TUDOR United Sportscar Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship. The last time I was in Austin, Texas was a September, about 20 years ago. I remember some great bars, some friendly locals and scorching temperatures. Two decades later, the bars are still hopping. And it is still way too hot. Plus rain.
The 251-foot Observation Tower at Circuit of The Americas has a double-helix staircase with 419 individual stairs leading up to the partial glass observation platform. It also has an elevator. Since the air temperature was 197 degrees with 162 percent humidity, I opted for the latter to reach the top to take some photos.
From the top of the Tower you can really get sense of the size of the facility. Like all things in Texas—except for me, Leo Parente and Allan McNish—it’s big. The colors bordering the track create some nice visual interest to make up for the overall flatness of the land. But any hope for a cooling breeze at that height was quickly dashed.
Looking down from the Tower you get a great view of the tops of the cars, even better than the banking at Daytona. While shooting the Tudor race I caught the #910 Porsche 911 RSR, piloted by Patrick Pilet, get forced into the Flying Lizard Audi R8 LMS. Lighting up the rears like an NHRA veteran, Pilet quickly got back under way, leaving a nice smoke show in his wake to distract his fellow competitors.
Fortunately the deluge held off until the WEC cars were on track. And it was epic; as I observed from the very cool and perfectly dry Michelin hospitality suite. Which gave me the opportunity to speak with Michelin’s Motorsports Manager Silvia Mammone and learn more about their revolutionary hybrid racing slick designed for damp and intermediate conditions. Seems illogical but it works. No grooves at all, but the tire sticks in the wet. Compound magic.
Other Porsche Blog Posts You Will Enjoy
Jeroen Bleekemolen Loses Wheel In Porsche. Gets Out, Picks it up, Wins Race
Michelin Tire School. What Is It and Why Did We Go?
Video: Porsche And Michelin “We Are Racers” Episode 3
View Comments (4)
So how does the tire sipe away the water to prevent hydroplaning?
Chuck,
That is a great question. The short answer is this tire does not sipe away water to prevent hydroplaning. The hybrid tire usually is applied for those transition periods where there really isn't much standing or running water on the surface. In such conditions, the unique rubber compound on this tire and the tiny surface roughness of the pavement provide space for water to be displaced in the contact patch allowing for good traction. This tire is a great example how Michelin uses all forms of product development to improve the total performance for our customers. Part of the technology giving the hybrid tire remarkable wet track performance came from studies of winter tire traction in icy conditions.
Porsche's decision to use the hybrid was a gutsy call by the team made in consultation with our Michelin engineer supporting their LMP1 team. They gambled on the mixed wet-to-damp-to-drying conditions around the track being sufficiently towards the damp side to work in their favor. We'd NEVER applied this tire in such conditions! It proved to be an amazing call. Credit to the team for a having such faith in our product and incredible talent behind the wheel. Add in that those tires went TWO fuel stints, again not something we'd done before, it was an eye opening experience.
Michelin uses motorsports to drive knowledge and improve our products for real world application. Thanks to those sloppy condition in Austin and a risky but brilliant call by our technical partners at Porsche, we learned a bit more about the total performance capabilities of this unique slick tire.
Ken Payne
Motorsports Tech Director
Michelin North America
Just to straighten out some of the very erroneous information in your post. The number 910 Porsche did not "get caught out with the spinning number 35 Audi" - it actually took out the number 35 by hitting it hard on the left rear, causing the spin, for which the Porsche received a drive through penalty. You also have the wrong driver of the 910 - it was Patrick Pilet.
Peter,
You are correct. Pilet had just taken over driving duties while we were on our way up the tower. We missed the swap. Thanks for the correction, we updated the post. As for the 910 "taking out" the number 35, I guess that's up to interpretation. The Porsche was forced into the Flying Lizard Audi. There are many we've spoken to who feel it was yet another bad bit of officiating as has been par for the series so far.