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Factory Five Demo w/Kumho Tires
 Beaver Run Raceway, June 1-2, 2005
 

two day event got off to a great start with a red and blue burn-out!                              All Photos courtesy of and copyright by Martin Spetz
 

Beaver Run Motorsports Complex, PA
It’s days like these that make us grateful for the jobs that we have!  We’ve worked with the guys from Kumho tires for years (Kumho is a sponsor and the official tire of the FFR Challenge Series) so when they called and asked if we could supply a pair of identically prepped Challenge cars we were happy to agree.  The simple fact was that two days of essentially open track driving was an offer we couldn’t refuse… so we had to ferry a few press guys around the track, big deal…
 

A staggering line-up of top dollar hardware was on hand to test the new tires from Kumho.
 
The job was simple.  The FFR cars would be used to showcase the new Kumho Ecsta SPT ultra high performance tires.  The Roadsters would do duty on the race course, while pairs of Porsche Boxsters and BMW Z4’s would run folks thru the autocross.  There were also some killer off-road demo rides and a drift car or two thrown in for good measure.
 

 
We figured it would be a great chance for a good number of auto-journalists to get a seat-of-the-pants sample of the FFR cars on the racetrack.
 

FFR engineer and race driver Dave Riha takes Press passengers out for hot laps.
 

The event began Wednesday evening with a huge burn-out demo using Kumho’s secret colored tires that produce red and blue smoke!  The press group then proceded to go out on the roadcourse in one of two identical FFR Challenge cars.  FFR Drivers Mark Dougherty and Dave Riha did the driving.  About 20 journalists made the three lap thrill ride.  The new Kumhos worked great and provided near race-tire quality grip.  On a side note, Dave Riha has recently also run the new Kumho V710’s and they were beyond belief, providing a race-slick level of grip in a reasonably priced tire. 

 

tech pro and race driver Mark Dougherty takes the wheel of FFR engineer Jim Schencks car.

 
There was a dinner reception and the main topic of conversation was the rides everyone got in the FFR cars wearing Kumho skins.  Later the group proceded to enjoy some spirited go cart racing… No intra-magazine rivalries at all… ahem.
 

 

Thursday dawned with action at each of the three venues.  The Porsches and BMW’s were hitting the autocross course as the off-road rides got underway and the FFR cars kept hammering the roadcourse. 

We had a great time and really enjoyed the hospitality of the guys from Kumho.  We arrived back at FFR Friday with a tired but grateful feeling… What a good day's work.
 
 
Here’s our plug for the products made by Kumho.  The tires are simply top grade.  We’ve run them for five years in the challenge seires and we use their street tires on our show cars. They are affordable, but more importantly, they perform great and look good.  Thumbs up from us… and that has nothing to do with the fact that we got to drive all-out for two full days…
 
 

Special thanks to the excellent engineers at Kumho Tires! 

 

Note:  There were so many KILLER photos of this event and ALL the cars that participated that we couldn’t fit them into this story… Check out these additional photos for a reeeeal treat!

 

 

Factory Five Racing