Goodyear completed its maiden FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season with a perfect result on Saturday as its partner teams finished first and second in the 8 Hours of Bahrain. Jackie Chan DC Racing and Jota Sport led the way for most of the eight-hour race into the night to complete the 15-month WEC season with Goodyear’s best result yet.
Both teams have raced with Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperSport race tyres since the start of the WEC season at Silverstone in September 2019. Drivers Will Stevens, Ho-Pin Tung and Gabriel Aubry claimed the LMP2 class victory in Jackie Chan DC Racing’s No. 37 Oreca 07 Gibson, finishing 1.894 seconds ahead of Jota Sport drivers Antonio Felix da Costa, Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez in the Goodyear-liveried No. 38 Oreca. Aubry made the move of the race with nine minutes to go when he muscled his way past da Costa for the lead.
Aubry and his teammates spent most of the race out front but several laps earlier, da Costa temporarily assumed the lead after a quick pit stop. The two Goodyear cars, both of which are run by British-based Jota Sport, completed the race on Goodyear’s medium B-spec tyre, which was introduced mid-season in time for September’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Teams had the B-spec and the softer A-spec compounds to hand this weekend but warmer than expected night-time conditions made the medium tyre the prime choice.
Ambient and track temperatures remained high throughout the race, which finished at 22:00 local time – several hours after sunset at 16:49. Mike McGregor, Goodyear’s Endurance Programme Manager, said: “A perfect way to end our first season in the World Endurance Championship. We couldn’t have had a better result than first and second with our two cars, and those results are a testament to the hard work of everyone in our design team and at the track. I’d like to extend our congratulations and thanks to the Jota Sport crew for a successful season. Now, the hard work begins for 2021.” Goodyear’s one-two finish against the competition was a fitting way to bring the era of open tyre competition in LMP2 to a close. From next season, Goodyear will supply every LMP2 car in WEC, the European Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
