Last year, Ducati’s Ben Bostrom won five straight WSB races, including a couple of races at Brands Hatch where he beat all the local Brits, as well as Neil Hodgson. The guy was on fire — in only his second year of racing the WSB championship.
Bostrom rides on Dunlops, of course, which are his favored brand (he rode to miserable results on Michelins his first year in WSB). This year, Bostrom can throw down a quick lap in qualifying, but he can’t keep the pace for race distance, while his Michelin-shod teammate Troy Bayliss dominates the series.
In MotoGP, Team Suzuki made a highly-publicized switch from Dunlops to Michelins this year, despite the fact that MotoGP four-stroke machines are new to both Dunlop and Michelin, and Dunlop has as much four-stroke development experience as Michelin.
The bottom line is that Michelin tires are dominating World championship roadracing events, while some highly regarded Dunlop riders (Bostrom among them) are performing below expectations. What’s going on? Is it merely coincidence, or has Michelin found some tire construction secret that Dunlop hasn’t? We would be interested in hearing from readers who might have some meaningful information on this subject.
