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22nd July 1993, Page 22
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IHAMPION 0 n a hot Sunday afternoon near Barcelona Wayne Rainey swings his 500cc Yamaha out of the shadow of the mountains into the final, long straight of the Catalunya circuit to sweep to an easy 200mph victory in the European Grand Prix.

This win strengthens the American's bid to retain his world championship, eight legs into the 14-round World Motorcycle Championship. Fellow American Kevin Schwantz retains a narrow lead of 156 points to Rainey's 153.

Afterwards, Rainey is relaxed and smiling as he signs autographs and poses for pictures in the paddock with members of the Dunlop support team. He rides his motorcycle in Marlboro Team Roberts colours, but he could not burn rubber quite so fast were it not for the efforts of the Birmingham-based firm.

Before the race, Rainey was tense and uncommunicative, but tonight is party night for the champ and the Dunlop fitters are his guests. A night on the town is no expense for a man reputed to earn £.5m a year from his supremacy on two wheels.

Not that Dunlop is in Barcelona just to service the two riders in Rainey's team—it looks after up to 62 riders with fitters able to hand cut tyres to specification on race day— but Rainey does fall into the elite of about 15 riders who receive their tyres free.

The logistics of the paddock service operation is the responsibility of service engineer Mick Canning, a Dunlop veteran of 20 years standing. "You name it—I do whatever's got to be done," shrugs Canning.

This ranges from transport management to hotel bookings spread over 14 legs of the Grand Prix series, crossing the world from Eastern Creek, Australia to Interlagos, Brazil. It adds up to a lot of time away from home. Canning averages a five-day stint at each of the European legs and three weeks in Australia and Malaysia.

Four artics have accompanied Dunlop to Catalunya from its motorsport fleet which stations 10 artics and four rigids at Birmingham and has others based on the Continent.

The tractors are standard Mercedes (the UK fleet is leased from BRS) but the trailers specialised £40,000 rigs built by Birmingham bodybuilder, F&S. One is a workshop with built-in hydrovane, dry air system and 10kW generator.

The tractors are dispatched from the paddock to an outer vehicle park once the trailers are unhitched and left to form a wagon-train style enclosure, where tyre fitting and cutting becomes the central feature of the operation.Two of the trailers carry tyres: up to 2,500 per round,of which 1,000 are likely to be fitted, That's 14,000 over the course of the championships with another 2,000 needed for the tests held by Grand Prix organising body 1RTA.

After each event a trailer-load of worn tyres is dispatched back to the UK and new tyres are loaded, The round before Catalunya was held at Assen in the Netherlands and one vehicle had returned to England before heading out to Spain with tyres to suit the three classes of 125, 250 and 500cc.

Canning's team include:, eight fitters, seven of whom have WV licences so they can take their turn at the wheel. They also have to be able to fit, balance and hand cut tyres and must be prepared to be on the road for the entire road racing season.

Canning says it is not easy to find people who are content to be away from home so much and have the requisite skills. He takes personal responsibility for service engineering for some of the top British 500cc riders, including Niall MacKenzie, Sean Emmett and John Reynolds. Many bike racing enthusiasts would no doubt envy the life, but the fitters work very hard in weather conditions which range from wet to unbearably hot.

Demand for tyres will vary with weather conditions. As well as different compounds,"wet" tyres have to be hand cut to suit rain swept tracks.

Once Dunlop has done its job the tyres end up in the pits where they are warmed in sleeves to 80°C before going into action. The wheel rims become too hot to handle without gloves but that is nothing to the scorching 110°C which the tyres reach on the track.

The season ends in October, when most of the fitters return to winter jobs in Dunlop's Birmingham stores carrying out preparation work for the next season. A few will go to the RAC car rally in November.

MUCH EFFORT

But why does Dunlop put so much effort into motorsport? Canning says that research and development plays a large part in its thinking: "The D364 road tyre was developed on the track; we raced it for two years before it became a mad tyre."

Dunlop believes fans are inspired to buy tyres when they see Rainey wringing every last ounce of 180hp performance from his 500cc Yamaha.

And involvement with the sport enables the Birmingham firm to get close to the vehicle manufacturers which are volume users: "Motorsport," it says, "is a profit centre." However sponsorship of truck racing has been rejected by Dunlop for this very reason: the volume sales just aren't there.

CM was not surprised to find names such as Dunlop and Marlboro in the paddock—the cigarette manufacturer is said to spend $15m a year sponsoring Rainey—less predictable was the presence of Joe Millar, an Irish reefer operator who sponsors 500cc rider Jeremy Mc Williams.

Millar is the boss of Millar Transport of Randalstown, County Antrim and runs an 18-vehicle fleet of fridges on international work. He has been sponsoring Irish riders for more than 12 years and says it is common for hauliers to sponsor motor cycle racing in Northern Ireland."

It began when local riders approached us for help and we bought the odd bike or two," explains Millar, who now leaves his transport manager in charge while he attends all 14 rounds of the GP.

Millar cites neighbouring haulier, Rea Transport, also of County Antrim, as sponsors of Joey Dunlop, the Dublin rider who was five times Formula One world champion. Millar has yet to back a champion at world level but at C,atalunya McWilliams finished respectably among the first dozen.

Motor cycle racing is by no means inexpensive to sponsor but apart from Millar's personal enthusiasm for the sport there is some benefit to his business: "Companies which are sympathetic to motor cycling put a bit of business our way. It's a very close-knit and integrated community" he says.

PADDOCK GLAMOUR

There is no doubt that paddock life is glamourous and colourful with its welldressed trailers and mobile homes, but behind the logos, the hospitality suites and the glamour girls lies the inescapable fact that motor cycle racing is a dangerous sport in which riders risk their lives.

No surprise then that the most sophisticated trailer is a mobile clinic, paid for collectively by the rival teams and the Grand Prix organisers. Here Dr Coster and his team specialise in motor cycle injuries, particularly those to the head.

The clinic is equipped to perform lifesaving surgery and to set broken bones. Patients at Catalunya included Italian rider Paolo Casoli, who needed treatment for a broken hand and forearm after an accident in the 250cc qualifier.

• by Patric Ciumane


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