This year has been a strong one for Falken Tyre on the motorsport front. It has racked up a plethora of titles from its motorsport activities and also secured a first victory in the VLN Endurance Championship as well as a top-ten finish at the notoriously challenging Nürburgring 24-hour race.
British racing driver James Walker will return to the gruelling Nürburgring after a four-year hiatus, driving a Dunlop-shod BMW 235i in the ultra-competitive VLN series. After a successful 15-year career spanning single seaters and sportscars, Walker moved his family back to Jersey and gave up racing, until being tempted back to racing in Germany on 22-23 September.
Dunlop has extended its partnership with the BMW M235i Racing Cup, described by product manager Dunlop Motorsport EMEA, Alexander Kühn as “the perfect entry point into the VLN.” The Cup began in 2014 and regularly features more than 20 cars battling in the most heavily occupied and extremely competitive class in the VLN and the 24h race on the Nurburgring. All BMW M235i Racing cars have competed for four consecutive seasons on the toughest race track of the world, racing exclusively on Dunlop racing tyres in the dimension 265/660 R18.
The Hankook supplied DTM championship enters the final third of its 2017 season at the Nürburgring this weekend for races 13 and 14. The tyre manufacturer and exclusive DTM partner states that the correct management of the race tyre and a pit stop strategy tailored to the racetrack and the car set-up will be keys to success in the Eifel Mountains. In the last meeting at Zandvoort, discussed in the video below, this was exemplified by Loic Duval (Audi), who climbed from 13th on the grid to finish runner-up, completing 26 of the 37 laps on one set of the Ventus Race – the longest stint by any of the drivers, and one that earned him the first podium of his DTM career.
Falken has returned to the Nürburgring podium at the 40th RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen, with the tyre brand’s Falken Motorsport team’s Porsche 911 GT3 R, driven by Martin Ragginger and Klaus Bachler following up victory for the BMW in July. In changeable weather conditions familiar to the Eifel region Ragginger/Bachler brought the Porsche over the line in third place at the second VLN Endurance Championship race of the season at the circuit.
Looking back on one of the major events in its calendar, Falken has posted a video reviewing its participation in the 2017 Nürburgring 24 Hours. The Sumitomo Rubber Industries brand expanded its entry at this year’s event with a new BMW M6 joining the Falken Motorsports Porsche 911.
Dunlop is by no means the only tyre maker present in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), and following the weekend’s 6 Hours of Nürburgring race in Germany, Michelin reports that its partners were able to “benefit fully from the performance potential of their tyres” thanks to low track temperatures of between 19°C and 26°C.
The latest round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) has delivered Dunlop more good news. After a successful Le Mans 24h race, the racing teams who selected Dunlop tyres enjoyed success in the latest WEC round, the Nürburgring 6h.
Giti Tire participated in the 45th ADAC Zurich 24h Race at the Nürburgring partnership with Team Dörr, one of Germany’s most experienced motorsport companies, finishing second in the SP8 class and 40th overall. Its fastest lap time was 09:11.087 minutes. The team’s Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo gained pole position in its class after qualifying but had its winning chances snatched away with a broken drive shaft with two hours remaining. The relationship with Team Dörr dates back to January 2017.
The Nürburgring 24h Race saw Dunlop continue its good form in endurance racing, securing its 18th victory after a close battle between Land Motorsport Audi and WRT Audi. Aston Martin, with whom Dunlop has recently enjoyed a productive endurance partnership, took the SP8 class win with its Vantage GT8.
Falken Motorsport achieved eighth place overall at the 45th ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24h race with its new BMW M6 GT3. The Sumitomo global brand’s motorsport division makes the race one of the flagship events in its promotional calendar, and added a second car to its team for the 2017 edition. Falken’s newest addition, competing at the endurance race for the first time in the company’s colours, was the third-best BMW home after a collision on Saturday evening led to the retirement of its Porsche 911 GT3 after completing just 26 laps.
Hankook supplied the tyres for the TCR and GT4 classes, including the new BMW M4 GT4, which made its official race debut in the Nürburgring 24 Hour race. 21 cars out of the 160 starters ran on with its Ventus Race range; the manufacturer supplied a total of 1,500 tyres for the Eifel region event. Hankook states that the slick tyre provided a consistently high level of grip both in daytime track temperatures of up to 47 degrees and on a cooler track during the night. The manufacturer added that the tyres’ high level of consistency allowed drivers to clock fast lap times at the end of their stints.
As the exclusive supplier to the new TCR and GT4 classes competing in this season’s VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring, Hankook will be in the thick of the action. The manufacturer states that one of its highlights of the weekend will be the race debut of the new BMW M4 GT4, which will run on Hankook racing tyres. The race coincides with the customer racing version of the car going on sale, also equipped with Hankook’s racing tyres.
More than 160 teams will take part in the Nürburgring 24-hour race on the weekend of 27-28 May, many of which will be supplied with Dunlop’s latest tyres. The manufacturer explains how it has re-worked its 4,000 strong offering for the event to equip manufacturer and privateer teams.
Dunlop celebrated a double podium on the Nürburgring Nordschleife in the last race before the 24h race at the end of May. The top two finishers were Dunlop equipped Audi R8 LMS cars; the local Phoenix-Racing team taking the chequered flag ahead of the similar car from the Audi Sport Team WRT team.
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