March 2, 2006
BFGoodrich® Tires' Official World Rally Championship
GREENVILLE, S.C

For 2006, BFGoodrich® Tires is set to enter another form of off-road racing to further demonstrate the brand's dominance on one of the toughest testing grounds known to man: the World Rally Championship (WRC). In this overseas venture, BFGoodrich will partner with some of the series' most exciting race teams, including Kronos Racing, BP Ford, OMV Peugeot Norway, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford and Red Bull Skoda. These teams consist of many of the world's most talented drivers such as the reigning, two-time World Champion, Sébastien Loeb (Kronos Racing).

BFGoodrich is working hard to make a successful transition into the WRC, building on experiences gained from a long history of off-road racing victories, including four-straight Dakar wins and 20-consecutive Baja 1000 titles. BFGoodrich looks to benefit from each of its new partners' expertise in the World Rally Championship, while continuing to innovate its products.

"When Airbus comes out with a new plane, there is always a sense of taking a step into the unknown, despite its years of experience, despite the skill of its engineers and technicians and despite the existence of validated components, etc.," says BFGoodrich's Rallies Program Manager, Aimé Chatard. "It's a similar situation for BFGoodrich. For example, we will have an evolution of our soft compound tire [g-Force Profiler 0+] which our partner drivers validated during winter testing. It's a BFGoodrich tire in its own right."

Several competitors racing on BFGoodrich Tires in its debut year made team changes for the 2006 season. This adds an additional element of transition that drivers will have to account for in addition to the new championship format featuring two categories (Manufacturers 1 and Manufacturers 2) and more basic technical regulations, including the outlawing of active differentials for seeded drivers.

BFGoodrich WRC Team Drivers
French superstar Sébastien Loeb (WRC titles in 2004 and 2005) will race a Citroen again in the 2006 season, but will now be competing on the Kronos Total Citroen team alongside rising Spanish star Xavier Pons. Austrian driver, Manfred Stohl also moved from the Citroen team for 2006, and will now be racing a Peugeot on the OMV team, partnering with Henning Solberg (Norway) who made the switch over from Ford.

Other drivers racing on BFGoodrich tires include: Marcus Gronholm (WRC titles in 2000 and 2002) who transitioned to Ford to team up with fellow Finnish driver Mikko Hirvonen after six years of racing with Peugeot; Austrian driver Andreas Aigner, leading the Red Bull Skoda team comprised of French asphalt expert Gilles Panizzi and Swedish racer Mattias Ekström, who both signed on for Monte Carlo and Sweden Rallies; British racer Matthew Wilson will lead the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford team where he is teamed up with multiple-time Belgian Rally Champion Pieter Tsjoen.

With the constant development of new race products and the large number of official and private teams joining forces with BFGoodrich Tires, 2006 promises to be an exciting year to experience World Rally Championships and BFGoodrich race teams.

BFGoodrich® Tires combines technological expertise with vast motorsports experience, delivering a high-performance tire for every type of vehicle from ultra-high performance tuner vehicles, sports cars and SUVs to the hottest sport trucks, pickups and rock-crawling rigs in the world. For more than 30 years, BFGoodrich Tires has used motorsports as a proving ground.

Success on the street begins with winning on the track and BFGoodrich Tires is involved in every type of racing, including oval, sports car, drag, desert, rally (Dakar and WRC) and extreme rock-crawling. With 20 consecutive Baja 1000 wins, the most wins in rock-crawling history, and an unmatched record on pavement, BFGoodrich Tires has proven the only records it breaks are its own. Visit BFGoodrich Tires online at www.bfgoodrichtires.com.