Falken Tire Corporation has officially announced a GT2 program for the American Le Mans Series that will see the Fontana, Calif.-based team entering a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR for selected events this season. Team Falken Tire will compete at Long Beach, Petit Le Mans and the Monterey Sports Car Championships in anticipation of a full-season championship effort in 2010.
Bryan Sellers, a familiar name in the Series, and Dominic Cicero will drive the Falken Porsche in 2009. Sellers has served as a factory driver for Panoz and BMW since his Series debut in 2005. A finalist in the 2002 Red Bull F1 Driver Search, Sellers also is a past World Karting Association national champion and won the 2002 Formula Ford Zetec championship.
Cicero is a winner in the North American Formula Renault Championship, only part of a single-seater résumé that includes stints in America and Europe. He also raced both prototype and GT sports cars since 2005.
Rod Everett, race engineer and owner of Landmark Motorsports, will manage Team Falken Tire, with his extensive experience in open-wheel and sports car endurance racing along with crew chief Mike Fox, a veteran Porsche mechanic and a dedicated group of seasoned racing technicians.
The team will be focused on developing AZENIS RT SLICKS specifically for the rear-engine Porsche 911 GT3 RSR chassis through extensive testing, driver, suspension and engine development. Falken engineers will design dozens of new specification tires for the racing program, changing rubber compounds, construction, tread design (for rain tires) and tire sizing to optimize track performance.
