Hiratsuka, Japan—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announces that it has renewed its partnership agreement with Germany’s Haupt Racing Team (HRT) and is aiming for victories at the 2026 Nürburgring 24-Hour Race (ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring) and the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS). This is the third straight year Yokohama Rubber will be partnering with HRT.
Yokohama Rubber began collaborating with HRT in 2024, and last season HRT competed with support by Ford Racing, the racing division of Ford Motor Company. In addition to finishing first in the SP9 PRO-AM class at the 2025 Nürburgring 24-Hour Race, the partnership’s car was the overall winner of Round 8 in last year’s NLS, the first victory in an NLS race for a Ford in 10 years. Yokohama Rubber’s ADVAN racing tires on the winning Ford Mustang GT3 provided the superb handling performance and reliability needed to win one of the world’s most challenging endurance races. Building on these achievements, Yokohama Rubber and HRT will continue to take on the challenge of achieving victories at the Nürburgring under an even stronger partnership from the 2026 season onward.
HRT was founded in 2020 and quickly established itself as a force to be reckoned with in international GT3 racing. HRT has established a strong track record in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), a German touring car racing series, as well as the NLS and the Nürburgring 24 Hours, and the team’s strong technical and organizational skills are highly regarded.
Over the years, Yokohama Rubber has supported many teams participating in the Nürburgring 24-Hour Race, a motorsports event where the world’s leading tire makers display their tires’ performance under the most demanding conditions as part of their intense global competition. Cars equipped with YOKOHAMA tires have won the overall championship three times. Cars running on YOKOHAMA tires also have a solid track record in the NLS, including capturing the NLS Speed Trophy and the NIMEX Team Trophy in the highest SP9 Pro class in the 2023 NLS.
The consumer tire strategy in Yokohama Rubber’s three-year (2024–2026) medium-term management plan, Yokohama Transformation 2026 (YX2026), aims to maximize the sales ratios of high-value-added tires by expanding sales of YOKOHAMA’s global flagship ADVAN brand, the GEOLANDAR brand of tires for SUVs and pickup trucks, winter tires, and 18-inch and larger tires. Yokohama Rubber positions participation in motorsports activities as crucial to its effort to further strengthen the ADVAN and GEOLANDAR brands. Yokohama Rubber therefore is again participating in a wide variety of motorsports events around the globe, from top-category to grassroots events.
Yokohama Rubber will post event updates and results on YOKOHAMA’s dedicated motorsports website and on our official motorsports SNS sites.
