Bridgestone opens $21 million race tire plant, boasts guayule-based Firehawk

AKRON—Like the perfect tire compound, building the future requires just the right amount of every ingredient.

It takes a dash of history, the right amount of legacy and a whole lot of new technology and ingenuity.

In the end, Bridgestone Americas Inc. thinks it has perfected the recipe for its future in North America. It's a future that starts at the Akron-based technology and testing facilities and takes shape at the newly christened Advanced Tire Production Center (ATPC).

The ATPC—a $21 million, 80,000-sq.-ft. race tire manufacturing center—is the first new tire plant to open in Akron in more than 70 years. The facility employs around 60 and manufactures all of the more than 25,000 Firestone Firehawk tires Bridgestone supplies the NTT IndyCar Series each racing season. ATPC replaces the company's 1 million-sq.-ft., century-old race tire manufacturing plant, also in Akron.

"We are putting an emphasis on making sure that we have sustainable manufacturing," Cara Krstolic, Bridgestone Americas' director of race tire engineering and production, said after the plant's ribbon-cutting ceremony June 22. "Bridgestone has a goal to be completely carbon-zero and have a completely sustainable tire by 2050.

"We always like to lead the way in whatever we do. So when we started talking about a new plant, we talked about what could we do to beat our goals at Bridgestone and lead the way."

The "much more right-sized" race tire plant does that, Krstolic said, and it uses 60-percent less energy than its predecessor in the process.

And while the plant may have a smaller footprint—both physically and ecologically—its impact on Bridgestone innovation won't be changing.

Paolo Ferrari, Bridgestone Americas CEO and president, said that has a lot to do with the fact that Bridgestone chose to keep its race tire manufacturing in Akron.

Akron is, after all, the core of Bridgestone's North American innovation, serving as home to the Bridgestone Americas Technical Center—one of three major global R&D centers—as well as the Akron Polymer Engineering Pilot Center, which serve as innovation hubs for a range of Bridgestone products and services. And with all of those facilities located within blocks of one another, that means consistent, quality collaboration throughout the tire development process—from materials engineering to manufacturing.

"This is at the heart of what we do when it comes to our tires," Ferrari said. "Tire technology, mobility solutions, digitalization—they just all come together brilliantly."

Bridgestone soon will add a vehicle-dynamics test track to the mix as well. The tire maker in November announced the construction of the $6 million test track that will expand its Akron proving grounds and take its tire development even further.

"We are actually developing a brand-new track here to continue to test our car (tires) and technology," Ferrari said. "And we did it in a way that was very conscious because we mirrored some of the test tracks that our customers have to ensure that our Bridgestone DNA gets fully transferred into the performance of the tire, the performance our customers want."

There's a reason Bridgestone prides itself on race tire development.

Because if you really want to test your tire technology, you put those tires on the racetrack. If your tires can take everything that the IndyCar Series has to throw at them, they can take on everyday city streets and county roads.

"We leverage racing, also, as a test for really accelerating our innovation," said Nizar Trigui, Bridgestone Americas chief technology officer and group president of solutions business. "… And that quick learning is key to accelerating our development and our learning for all of our products."

There is plenty to learn from the IndyCar Series racetracks, officials emphasized. But don't take Bridgestone's word for it.

Take Mario Andretti's.

The legendary race car driver was in attendance for the ribbon-cutting ceremony June 22 and shared his perspective on the rigors the sport puts on Bridgestone's Firestone tires.

"The series, especially the IndyCar Series, is not like any other series on this planet. Let's put it along with Formula 1 (or) NASCAR—the demand for this series stands alone," Andretti said. "You are talking about not just performance, but safety. The rigor that this series puts the tires through is unparalleled."

Andretti pointed to the diversity of each race course as proof.

"You have superspeedway, short ovals. You have street courses, road courses. No other series is equal to that," he said. "… Here it is, from a driver's standpoint: Today, for instance, at Indianapolis, you are approaching the corners at close to 250 mph. And as a driver, you are not going to second guess and think, 'Oh, I hope the right front sticks with me.' It is a given, and that is huge. The proprietary technology that Firestone possesses is second to none. No question about it."

Taking those track-tested ideas and innovations and applying them across all of the company's tire products is a goal that Bridgestone has gone all-in on. And those crossover technologies have never been more promising than they are today.

"When I joined the racing department, we always talked about the technology transfer from racing to passenger tires. And we were always kind of making a stretch when we talked about that," Krstolic said.

While it's true that some of the fundamental building blocks and chemicals developed for racing were able to make the transition to passenger tires, the crossover wasn't significant."

Until now.

Until guayule.

Bridgestone has invested more than $100 million and a decade of research in the drought-resistant desert shrub, seeking to understand its potential to replace hevea rubber in the tire manufacturing process. The goal is to commercialize the use of guayule in passenger tire production by 2030.

So far, though, the tire maker has made significant strides in its use and understanding of the alternative natural rubber. And among its successes is the guayule-based Firehawk, which will be made alongside all the other Firehawk tires at the new Akron plant.

"You are starting to see a lot more things that are used in racing for the first time that are going to make their way over to the passenger tires," Krstolic said. "… The one we are really excited about is the (Firehawk) guayule tire."

With this tire—distinguished by its green sidewalls—Bridgestone was able to replace the hevea NR in the sidewall with guayule-derived rubber. The tire debuted in Indianapolis' Pit Stop Challenge in May and will be running again at the 2-plus hour, 174-mile Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 5-7.

That tire is one example of how the innovation and manufacturing in Akron shapes the future for Bridgestone Americas—and for the racing community overall. And it's a future that the racing community should be excited about, Andretti said.

"You talk about a future," Andretti said. "(Bridgestone is), as a supplier, the most important supplier for the racing cars today. And (drivers) know that (Bridgestone) is here for the future, and it is solid. So, I am happy as hell."