JOINT STATEMENT FROM HANKOOK TIRES AND CORSA MOTORSPORTS
Team Will Not Race In 12 Hours of Sebring
SEBRING, FL (March 14, 2008) – Hankook Tire and Corsa Motorsports regret to announce that the No. 48 entry will not compete in the 56th running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida.
“After several days of practice on this challenging course, it is clear that we have not yet achieved our competitive goals,” explained Bill Bainbridge Hankook Director of Brand Communications. “Therefore it is in our mutual best interest that we withdraw from this event and continue our tire development work and testing in order to compete in the series at the highest level.”
“Corsa Motorsports, its drivers and partners have worked extremely hard this week and in previous testing to compete at Sebring and looking ahead, want nothing more than to race and be competitive. Together with Hankook Tires, we are discussing the best way to move forward in our partnership and effort to develop a competitive product,” said Steve Pruitt, Team Principal of Corsa Motorsports. “To say we are disappointed not to race Saturday is an understatement. However, it’s certainly in the best interest of our team and partner to improve the performance before putting our Ferrari on the track in a race situation.”
Bainbridge added “We are grateful to Corsa for their continuing commitment to work with us. While disappointed that spectators will not have the opportunity to see the Hankook-shod Ferrari on the track here in Sebring on Saturday, we are determined to be competing in the series as soon as possible.”
About Hankook Tire Co., Ltd
Hankook Tire (CEO: Seung Hwa Suh) is the seventh largest and one of the fastest growing tire manufacturers in the world. It produces innovative, superior quality, and high performance radial tires for passenger cars, 4x4, SUVs, light trucks, commercial trucks, buses and for automobiles in motorsport. It invests approximately 5 percent of revenue in research and development and develops cutting-edge technologies through its five global R&D Centers meeting regional customer demands and enhancing customer satisfaction. Selling in 170 countries around the world, the company has more than 12,000 employees. Approximately 70 percent of revenue comes from growing overseas sales.
About Hankook Tire America Corp.
Headquartered in Wayne, N.J., Hankook Tire America Corp. is a technology-focused, market-driven company that markets and distributes a complete line of high performance and ultra-high performance passenger tires, light truck, SUV tires, as well as medium truck and bus tires to more than 400 independent dealers through 3000+ retail sales locations in the United States and Canada.
For more information, please visit Hankook Tire’s web site at www.hankooktire.com
About Corsa Motorsports
Founded in 2005, Corsa Motorsports is the only professional motorsports team based in Utah and is lead by Team Principal Steve Pruitt, a Utah commercial real estate developer. The team operates from a 9,000 square-feet race services and technical facility. Corsa Motorsports owns two Ferrari F430 LMGT cars and will begin the 2008 ALMS season fielding one, with plans to add the second car in the latter half of the season. Corsa Motorsports is dedicated to the history, passion and competition which are unique to Ferrari and its GT cars. The team’s roots began in the Ferrari Challenge series from which it migrated to professional sports car racing with the conversion and development of the first F430 Challenge for competition in the GT class of the Rolex Grand Am Championship of the Americas to which Corsa added the Michelotto version of the F430 GT in the GT2 class for the American Le Mans Series.
