Kumho-shod Peugeot Rczs dominate class at Green Hell

The Kumho-shod cars of Team Peugeot RCZ Nokia finished first and third in SP2T, the category for 1600cc turbocharged cars) in last weekend’s Nürburgring 24 Hours. First past the flag was car 100, shared by Paul Englert, Steven Palette, Guillaume Roman and Julien Rueflin, which covered 2,077.82 miles at an average speed of 86.58mph during the course of the race.

Despite being involved in two accidents during the night and losing valuable time as a result, Michael Bohrer, Jürgen Nett, Stéphane Caillet and Julien Piguet managed to fight the sister car 101 back to third place, and thereby join their team-mates on the podium.

Kumho’s technical manager Mark Hamnett added: “We managed to dial out unwanted understeer simply by increasing the rear tyre pressures, and were almost certainly the only tyre manufacturer to finish the event without a single puncture; proving the strength as well as the performance of our products.”

Deputy team manager Timo Frings was quick to praise the fighting spirit of his drivers, who he remarked “never gave up despite the setbacks”. The team’s chief tester, Stéphane Caillet, confirming the Peugeots were “really enjoyable to drive, despite a degree of nervousness in the handling born of necessarily stiff springing.”

The next outing for the Peugeots is in round four of the VLN championship, which takes place at the Nürburgring again on 23 June.