It’s a rule among race teams, notes Robert Dole, product promotions manager for Yokohama Tire Corporation: “No matter what else might be wrong with a racecar that’s not performing, the first thing you blame is tires.”

He’s joking of course. Well, he’s laughing at least. We’re holed up in the Yokohama support truck, just prior to the last qualifying session on Saturday, before Sunday’s big race at Mosport, and he’s filling me on what it takes to be a tire supplier at the technological exercise and spectacle that is an ALMS race weekend.

Yokohama has won many races and championships in international sports car racing. It’s most formidable pairing has been with PTG when that race team fielded factory-backed BMWs.

BMW pulled out of ALMS this year (most likely waiting for the new M3 to arrive, before jumping back in). As a result, the PTG/Yokohama team took over the running of Panoz’ factory cars. The team recently scaled back to a one-car effort, the no. 22 Panoz Esperante GTLM, piloted by Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand.

For this one GT2-class racecar, Yokohama hauled 190 tires to Mosport. (Yokohama also supplies tires for the Porsche GT2 cars of Team Transport, but took a pass at Mosport this year). Like all Yoko race rubber, these 190 tires were specially made in Japan after much research and consultation with the race team, and then shipped to the tire maker’s head office facility in Fullerton, California.

There was a slight delay at the Canadian border. Apparently the assigned value of the tires — one cent apiece — wasn’t washing with Customs. Like all tire suppliers, Yokohama supplies its wares free of charge, and indicated so on the paperwork. A day later, after Yokohama assigned a more realistic value to the tires, and assured the border folks that all the tires would eventually be returning to the U.S., they were clear to land at the Mosport paddock.

The support truck (with all its tire changing and balancing paraphernalia) and the truck full of tires are manned and operated by Trackside Performance, a supplier to Yokohama. Tire engineer “Cheech” Yamauchi is also part of Trackside’s Yokohama team. The only Yokohama staff on site is Robert and Jun Arakawa, the company’s chief racing tire engineer, based in Japan.

As you would expect, Robert noted there is much discussion between Cheech, Jun and PTG personnel before, during and after every practice and qualifying session, and during each race. But he noted that the bulk of the tire strategy — which compounds and construction types to use on race weekend — has to be made before you even arrive at the track.

“If you come here not knowing what your plan is, you’ll be behind the eight ball.”

He cited that open practice sessions are usually only an hour in length, and usually there are only two of them before qualifying starts.

Once qualifying starts, you are only allowed 20 pieces of tires per car for both qualifying and the race. And you have to start the race on the tires you qualified on. To keep everyone honest, IMSA officials “bar code” each tire in the set of 20.

Robert said the work schedule around the Yokohama trailer is “firehouse-like” — lots of downtime punctuated by periods when “all hell breaks loose.”

But that’s all part of racing, and Yokohama is committed to all that racing entails. “Racing is how we became known in North America,” said Robert. “It’s part of our heritage.” Like others, he noted that the major benefits of racing are technology transfer, validation of product and branding. On branding, he noted that sports car racing is particularly suited to cementing the excellent perception of Yokohama’s Advan line of performance tires.

He added that the company’s “Nano” technology was pioneered in the ALMS program.

Now that all the major open-wheel racing series (Formula One, Champ Car, IRL) run a “spec” tire (and one tire supplier for all race teams), Robert considers ALMS as the top battleground for tire makers.

“Michelin now has a leg on us now (in ALMS), but that was not always the case. We have every intention of getting back into their face.”