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Heritage
IRL / Champ Car (CART)
Bridgestone began competing in the major motor sport series in the United States in 1988 following its buy-out of Firestone. Firestone had had a great record of success in the Indy 500, one of the world's most famous races which was first run in 1911, and respecting this tradition, Bridgestone plotted a comeback for Firestone at the Indy.
Development of Indy-spec tyres began in 1993. By 1995 Firestone had returned to the CART Indycar World Series and thanks to the combined efforts of Firestone and Bridgestone was soon manufacturing tyres that could compete with the best in the category. CART races are run on Oval, Road and Street Courses. At first Firestone made tyres for the Road and Oval courses at its Akron Technical Centre. For the extremely high speed Super Speedway (Oval) and Street Courses, tyres were made at Bridgestone's Kodaira Technical Centre in Tokyo. Staff referred to these as the "Akron" and "Tokyo" tyres, respectively.
In 1996 organisers of the Indy 500 established an independent series called the Indy Racing League (IRL) creating two major open-wheel racing series. The Firestone brand supported both. When Goodyear withdrew from both series in 2000, Bridgestone-Firestone became the sole tyre supplier to CART and IRL, mirroring Bridgestone's role in F1.
When CART went in quest of new horizons, expanding to Japan and then Europe, the CART tyre brand was changed from Firestone to Bridgestone in 2002 in line with Bridgestone’s global marketing strategy. IRL, on the other hand, retained a strong American flavour, so the Firestone brand continued to be used there.
In Japan, both American- and European-style motorsports are popular. Japan's only Oval course is the Twin Ring Motegi in Ibraki Prefecture. Racing began here in 1998 while Bridgestone has been sponsoring the event since 1999, contributing to the growing recognition and popularity of American motor racing. Twin Ring Motegi began hosting one event in the popular IRL series in 2003.
Having made tyres that could stand up to the high speeds and loads of Group C racing, Bridgestone's Kodaira Technical Centre was already familiar with the manufacturing technology needed to create tyres for use on Super Speedways. At Akron, technology and production equipment upgrades were needed to make production possible so from 1998 Super Speedway tyres were produced at Akron as well. But with a growing number of users and races, the Kodaira Technical Centre was needed to provide production support. Kodaira still has special manufacturing know-how for Super Speedway tyres and continues to support Akron.
In 2003, tyres for the Indy 500, which had previously been supplied only by Kodaira, were also supplied by Akron. The high-speed endurance tyre technology developed for this category was put to use in F1 competition when Bridgestone joined the fray in 1997.
After seven successful years as sole tyre supplier to the U.S. open wheel racing circuits, Bridgestone Firestone looks set to continue this trend with the company remaining a stable feature of the IndyCar, Indy Pro and Champ Car Championships in 2007. The Champ Car World Series welcomes a brand-new car, an influx of new drivers, and now a new look schedule. Six new venues have been announced, all of which will host Champ Cars for the first time. Similarly the IndyCar Series has also announced a calendar featuring new courses, including the Belle Isle street circuit in Detroit, the road course at Mid Ohio and the new oval in Iowa.
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