News - 2024

• Yoshimura SERT Motul won the FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) title on Bridgestone tires.
• With a message "Passion to Turn the World" to illustrate Bridgestone's passion to race, win, embrace the ultimate challenge, and accelerate innovation, the company is reinforcing sustainable global motorsport activities including EWC.
• Through supporting global motorsport activities, Bridgestone will deliver "Emotion: Committed to inspiring excitement and spreading joy to the world of mobility" of the Bridgestone E8 Commitment.

Tokyo (September 17, 2024) - Bridgestone Corporation (Bridgestone) announced today that Yoshimura SERT Motul won 2024 FIM^*1 Endurance World Championship (EWC) title, the world's foremost series of endurance motorcycle races, on Bridgestone's BATTLAX premium motorcycle tires. This is the fifth time and the fourth consecutive year that a team to which Bridgestone supplies tires has won EWC title. Meanwhile, YAMALUBE YART YAMAHA EWC Official Team, another team supported by Bridgestone, came in second in this series.

Yoshimura SERT Motul won the EWC series championship

Since 2017, Bridgestone has supported teams participating in the full EWC series with the supply of BATTLAX brand tires, which provide high grip, durability, and comfort handling. In the 2024 season, Yoshimura SERT Motul, one of the three teams supported by Bridgestone, placed first in the opening race, second in the second race, and third in the third race of the series and showed consistent performance throughout the entire season. With the second rank, the team went on to participate in the Bol d'Or 24-hour endurance race, the series' final race, which took place in France on September 14-15. This team came in the first in this race, winning the EWC champion title.

For Bridgestone, motorsport activity is our origin as a tire manufacturer and "challenge for excellence." The company is reinforcing the sustainable global motorsport activities with a message "Passion to Turn the World" to illustrate Bridgestone's passion to race, win, embrace the ultimate challenge, and accelerate innovation. The message also represents the passion to support a sustainable mobility society together with its partners through motorsport. Using racing as a "mobile laboratory", the company will refine technology in extreme conditions, evolving and connecting this innovation to the development of replacement tires for the future under the concept "From Circuit to Street." By demonstrating its challenge and pursuit of excellence, as well as its passion to race in motorsport for all stakeholders, the company is looking ahead to build a "sustainable premium" brand.

"Winning the Endurance World Championship is the result of whole team, valuable sponsors and many people who supported us, and I am proud what we achieved this year. First and foremost, we are delighted to be able to prove that the Yoshimura-tuned Suzuki GSX-R1000R is such an excellent bike. Its outstanding performance and reliability helped us to overcome the tough conditions of the endurance race. We would not have been able to maximize our strategy and capabilities without it. And we shouldn't forget about the Bridgestone tires! They provided consistent grip and durability throughout the race in different conditions. It is sure that we were able to achieve the result with the excellent performance of the tires. I also would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the sponsors and every member in the team. The engineers, mechanics, partners, and all the supporting companies worked hard, and their efforts and dedication were fundamental to achieve this result. Reclaiming the title was not possible without their hard work and commitment. We celebrate our 2024 World Championship win and stay even stronger. Thank you for all of your supports," said Yohei Kato, Team Director of Yoshimura SERT Motul.

"I would like to congratulate all of the members of Yoshimura SERT Motul on their EWC title. Yoshimura SERT Motul continued to show high level of teamwork throughout the entire season, always appearing on the winners' podium, and deserved to be the champion. Bridgestone is very proud to have contributed to their championship and worked together as one team by supplying and operating tires that maximize the performance of both riders and their bikes and, even under the extreme conditions of endurance races. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the many motorsport fans who supported us and to all the teams who worked so hard and cooperated in tire development. The company is committed to continuously refining its technologies to develop and supply tires with even higher levels of quality and performance going forward. As a member of the team, we aim to support the teams from the ground up and contribute to their achievement of the series championship," said Tatsuya Uchida, Director, Global Motorsport Operation Division, Bridgestone Corporation.

Bridgestone is committed to supporting the development of a safe and enjoyable motorcycling culture offering peace of mind through a wide range of sustainable global motorsport and through "Dan-Totsu"^*2 products like its BATTLAX brand premium motorcycle tires. Through these efforts, the company strives to achieve the corporate commitment of "Emotion: Committed to inspiring excitement and spreading joy to the world of mobility" described in "Bridgestone E8 Commitment."^*3

1. FIM stands for Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
2. "Dan-Totsu" refers to Bridgestone's goal of being the clear and absolute leader.
3. Bridgestone established its corporate commitment, the "Bridgestone E8 Commitment" to realize its vision: "Toward 2050, Bridgestone continues to provide social value and customer value as a sustainable solutions company." This commitment will serve as the axis to drive management while earning the trust of future generations. The "Bridgestone E8 Commitment" consists of 8 Bridgestone-like values starting with the letter "E" (Energy, Ecology, Efficiency, Extension, Economy, Emotion, Ease, and Empowerment) that it will commit to creating through Bridgestone-like "purpose" and "process", together with employees, society, its partners and customers to realize a sustainable society.