We do all the tire work for Michelin Motorsports as well as working with their Motorsports Marketing group.. For the last several years the tire support has obviously been GTLM only. Next year, when Michelin gets the whole show, it's going to be nuts. All of our at-track operations are my responsibility so for me much of this year is about next year. I actually didn't come into this gig as a racing guy or a car guy, but somehow I've stumbled into a job that's ended up being pretty cool.

We do the same for offroad through the BFG brand, but with Michelin getting the IMSA deal I'm not involved in that much anymore.

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Significantly undertrained since 1999

In the US? or Clermont ferrand at Michelin?

Very ridiculously cool

Ok, I'm jealous. That sounds like a pretty cool job.

I saw the tire support at COTA for IMSA. Looked like quite a production.

Is there still going to be a Continental Tire Challenge or will you guys become the title sponsor of that series?

US only. We have a few guys that go over and help with LeMans, but that’s it.

Continental is gone completely at the end of this season. Michelin will be spec on all classes except GTLM. GTLM is open and will stay that way, but it’s open now and all the teams choose to run on Michelin.

I dont understand - what exactly does your firm do?

Long answer alert:

Michelin hires us to do all the tire work for teams racing on Michelins. Right now that's only the 9/10 GTLM cars in Weathertech. In 2019 Michelin is spec tire so it will be Weathertech, Conti Sportscar Challenge & Prototype Challenge. 100-ish cars. Before I started this job and had actually seen what we do I could've guessed, but didn't really know what "tire work" meant so here's an example of a race weekend.

Racing - Next weekend for the Rolex 24 we'll drive 6 tractor trailers loaded with a few thousand tires and a bunch of equipment along with a crew of 20+ guys to Daytona. They'll pull in on Monday. When the teams roll in and start setting up for practice one of the first things they'll do is come see us. They'll bring as many wheels as they're allowed (IMSA defines how many tires they can use) to our "tire compound" and our operation will mount, balance and prepare their tires for the race. The race team engineers will have worked with Michelin engineers to figure out what compound they want to run and we're responsible to make sure the right tires are there. Then they'll go practice and figure out if they like their choice. If they don't they'll come back to us and we strip the wheels of the tires they don't want and remount tires for the compound they do want. When it rains, like it's supposed to this weekend, the world blows up and teams scramble back to get us to swap slicks for wets. For the GTLM class all the tires are confidential so none of the teams have the tires between races. We give them to them for the race and take every one of them home (even the used ones) after the race.

Motorsports Marketing - We also help Michelin with at-track marketing activation. If they have a tent or other presence in a fanzone, or on a midway, that's us. If they have dealer's hospitality, that's us. At some races (VIR and Mosport last year) we'll bring in performance cars and pro drivers and Michelin will do hot laps for different groups of people. That's us. IMSA always has hot laps during a race weekend. We get any Michelin guests to experience that and generally ensure they have an enjoyable race weekend.

Other Marketing - At Sebring this year Michelin is hosting a group of influencers so we're the agency responsible for everything that group will experience. That will include laps on the track (driving and being driven), autocross exercises and all the hospitality and dining for a "premium" experience. There's more here, but you're probably tired of reading.

Yeah. I talk too much. I clearly need to work on my elevator speech or just make sure I only ride in really tall buildings.

It never ceases to amaze me who is on this forum and what they do.

Important question: Will you be staffing the fanzone areas with as good of talent as Conti did/does? Asking for a friend...

Sorry to say that the Conti talent will in all likelihood be replaced by a large, round dude.

Is it your people in the pits taking tire temps etc?

As an aside, for others wondering why Michelin would hire a company for this work, when you see a 'factory team' in racing. It's almost always a race team hired by the factory/manufacturer.

Corvette Racing is Pratt & Miller Engineering. IIRC, Doug Fehan is the only GM employee.

Aston Martin Racing was/is Prodrive, Toyota is Oreca, even Audi was Joest.

That's pretty cool. I know Forza and IMSA announced an alliance back in October.

Those are Michelin engineers. Each GTLM team has a Michelin engineer dedicated to them during race week. It's amazing how quickly a conversation about tires with those guys can leap into stratospheric levels of geekiness.

I bought a BMW M2 almost two years ago. I didn't need a sports car but I was "looking".

I stopped by the dealership and it had just been unloaded, one of the first ones to make it to the USA. It was pretty much love at first sight and I offered to buy it on the spot. The salesman laughed and said that there were eight people in front of me in line for the car. I gave him a deposit anyway (which I think shocked him). Two days later he called me to say that everyone on the list had turned it down because it was a stick....... I picked it up the next day.

I have never regretted buying it for a second. My dad had told me many times over the years that he had an opportunity to buy a M3 in the early 80s and always wished he would have done it. I didn't want to make the same mistake.

I smile every time I see it in the garage. I smile even bigger whenever I drive it. It isn't a garage queen. I drive it in all weather except snow. I'm planning to own it until I'm 80.

That's what kind of people own sports cars ;-)

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

I think you’re really over estimating how quick self driving cars will start being available. Given that we still don’t have one fully self driving car for sale. We’re barely at level 3 autonomy, Tesla is level 2. When you consider the number of 10+ year old cars are on the road even if we have those available in 10 years you’re looking at 20-30 before they start really being seen more on the road.

Also there is no reason for insurance companies to raise rates. Insurance rates are risk based. more self driving cars decrease risk of accidents so rates overall would go down for non-selfdriving cars as there is less risk of an accident.

I think we massively underestimate both the pace at which things will change and the wider implications for urban planning

An architect friend works for a Audi partner on the urban master planning of two new cities, one in mainland China and one urban redesign of a US town.

The plans are entirely predicated upon removing most privately owned vehicles, the consequence of autonomous vehicles being no on grade real estate required for parking. Less space required for parking vehicles with no drivers, the ability to call vehicles to get you directly as well as regular public transport links but by far and away the biggest advantage is the absolute drop in number of vehicles on the road.

I currently have one motor bike and one car. Both are idle for 20-22 hours per day most days of the year.

I am sure insurance, taxation and other levers will be used by governments to decrease private vehicle ownership.

My kids are 2 and 4. I don't expect they will learn to drive and I suspect in 20 years the only place I could use a caterham or focus RS is the track

Yup. Your the kind of person that should own that car. Ive always been a car guy. I like working on them and maintaining them. I enjoy that part of ownership. Depending on the car, sometimes ownership is more of a stewardship than anything. It’s kind of a desire to continue the preservation of the masterpiece of mechanical marvel that the car is.

Recently, I bought a 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo. I wanted one 20 years ago and just didn’t get the car. I thought it didn’t make sense given my needs. I bought a Mazda RX7 instead. Anywho, I have swapped all the fluids, I put in a new clutch, put on new tires, new rotors and pads, etc. the car runs awesome. I plan to continue to update the car through my ownership and keep it in great shape. I should add that I was taking the twins to a soccer game and we ended up lined up at a stop light next to a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. We toasted the guy off the line in city street drag race to about 70mph. The kids thought it was awesome. On paper, the VR4 should have won, but on paper isn’t a real race! Good times.

That's funny..... because my first fast, frivolous car was an '86 944 turbo that I bought in 2003. It was in beautiful condition, had been very well maintained, and had also had a lot of aftermarket work done to it. It was putting down 320 HP at the wheels, kinda fast:-)

Unfortunately in 2003 I was still establishing myself in my career and money was a little bit tight. Porsche mechanics don't care if they are working on a 17 year old Porsche, they charge the same price no matter what. I did some work on the car myself but it still cost me about $2,000/year for maintenance and replacement of parts that would break. At the time it was just a little too much money and I sold it in 2007. I still miss that car and if I owned it today, 10 years later, much more established and comfortable, I wouldn't even think about selling it.

I'm a little bit jealous. Enjoy your car.

ps. I recently had an opportunity to trade my M2 in for almost new 911C2 but I realized that I would miss the M2. It is all the car that I need. So fun to drive. Fairly unique (so far). It has totally "scratched my itch" for a fast, fun car.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

Q: What kind of people DRIVE sports cars?

A: Bald men in driving moccasins and obese women with more than $1K of high end lingerie stacked perfectly in their cinnamon sache'd dresser drawers.