Among branding and marketing initiatives through various sports events, Bridgestone views motorsports as an important communication platform that is directly linked to its tire business. Participating in motorsports, Bridgestone aims to create higher competitive tires while working together with car and motorcycle manufacturers and other related parties to contribute to the development of the automobile industry and motorsport culture.
Through on-track knowledge and experience during tough and competitive top-level races, Bridgestone is able to enhance its tire development capability.
In Japan, Bridgestone will supply tires to teams competing in the SUPER GT for cars as well as in the All Japan Road Race Championship and the Suzuka 8hours Endurance Race for motorcycles. Bridgestone will also supply tires to teams participating in FIM* Endurance World Championship series (EWC) which is the world's foremost series of endurance motorcycle races held in Europe and Japan. In addition, as the official tire supplier, Bridgestone will continue to provide Firestone brand tires to the IndyCar Series in North America.
Bridgestone also supports various grassroots motorsports, including the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing 86/BRZ Race, the ROADSTER Party Race III, and gymkhana races. These are examples of Bridgestone's activities to increase the number of car fans. Through these grassroots motorsports, Bridgestone hopes to deliver enjoyable driving experiences. Moreover, Bridgestone continues to supply tires to cars competing in Nürburgring 24 Hours Endurance Race held in Germany that gathers crowds of more than 200,000 spectators.
Bridgestone will primarily supply POTENZA brand tires for car races and BATTLAX brand tires for motorcycle races in pursuit of collaborative victory with teams, drivers, and riders.
Also in 2017, Bridgestone continuously supports the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (October 8 to 15), a solar car race of teams from around the world competing on a route that spans across Australia. The company provides environmental technologies to support the student engineers taking part in this grueling race, which covers a 3,000 km course stretching from the north to the south of Australia.
To communicate the pleasure of cars and motorcycles to many people through these motorsport activities, Bridgestone will hold events both inside and outside of racing circuits and provide information via the Internet and other sources.
