Nürgburgring-based VLN Championship front runner Twin Busch will be fitted with Kumho tyres when the privateer starts the 24 hour race this weekend. The squad’s history in the race includes a tenth place finish overall behind nine works outfits last year. Kumho wants to help the team to eclipse that result on 16-17 May.
Falken Tyre Europe will enter its motorsport campaign with the same Porsche 911 GT3 R racing the Nordschleife once again in 2015. Peter Dumbreck, Wolf Henzler, Alexandre Imperatori and Martin Ragginger will again contend selected races of the VLN Championship alongside the ADAC 24 hour race.
Toyota may well have broken two records at the Nürburgring circuit in Germany, and is keen to share details of one of them. A modified, Goodyear-shod Prius has recorded the most fuel-efficient lap of the Nordschliefe. It was perhaps also the slowest lap officially recorded by a vehicle manufacturer.
Sumitomo global brand Falken’s endurance racing team achieved its best ever finish at the Nürburgring 24 Hour Race, making its 997 GT3-R the highest placed Porsche.
Falken has signed Swiss driver Alexandre Imperatori to compete alongside Wolf Henzler, Martin Ragginger and Peter Dumbreck in its 2014 Porsche GT3 team. Falken will compete in various VLN rounds and the Nürburgring 24-hour race.
ADAC Nordrhein has announced the scheduling of a Qualifying Race for the 24h Nürburgring on 5-6 April 2014. Walter Hornung, race director of the ADAC Zurich 24h Race and head of motorsports at ADAC Nordrhein, explained that the idea was to offer teams an “optimum testing opportunity… without the pressure of a championship.”
Unusually for endurance racing, the latest round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji saw qualifying become more important than any of the teams could have estimated. However, as rain and fog compromised race day, there was virtually no scope for changes in the order, Dunlop reports. The tyre manufacturer supplied tyres to the top five qualifiers, and as a result the #35 OAK Racing Morgan of Baguette, Plowman and Gonzalez leads the LMP2 Championship with two more stints of six hours to go.
Pirelli has launched two fitments for the recently launched Alfa Romeo 4C. The new 4C lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 8:04 on the P Zero Trofeo tyres – a new Alfa Romeo record – which were developed in less than a year of intense work between Pirelli and Alfa Romeo engineers. The car has the option of fitting 17” on the front and 18” on the back, or 18” on the front and 19” on the back.
Robert Wickens scored the maiden victory of his DTM career in difficult wet and drying conditions at the Nürburgring. The Mercedes-Benz driver coped best with the changeable conditions, moving from seventh on the grid to the front of the field. The race was stopped after 47 of the scheduled 49 laps, because the maximum duration of 75 minutes had been reached. Tyre supplier Hankook provided the wet, base-line slick and faster option tyres to help the teams adapt to different conditions and to use flexible race tactics.
Aston Martin has added to its long heritage of innovation with a world first hydrogen-fuelled zero CO2 emission lap of the 24 km Nordschleife circuit in Germany. The lap was completed on Saturday (27 April) with Aston Martin Chief Executive Officer Dr Ulrich Bez at the wheel of the prototype Aston Martin Hybrid Hydrogen Rapide S, and was a perfect test run ahead of a formal record-breaking attempt at the ADAC Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring (N24) next month.
Kumho has numerous class wins in Germany’s Nürburgring-based VLN series under its belt, but during the opening round of the 2013 season on 13 April, the tyre maker achieved its first ever top ten finish, courtesy of the twins Dennis and Marc Busch, driving an Audi R8 LMS Ultra. The brothers occupied a lowly 40th place on the starting grid, thanks to a loose splitter during qualifying, but then managed to climb 32 places to finish 8th overall.
Michelin and BMW Motorsport have announced plans to join forces to contest the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2013. According to the two companies, this means the German carmaker’s BMW Z4 GTE and BMW Z4 GT3 cars will run on Michelin ‘Ultimate’ endurance racing tyres. The 2013 programme’s first competitive outing will be the 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida, USA, on 16 March.
Falken continued its programmes in the German VLN championship and Nürburgring 24 Hours, UK and Europe drifting championships as well as the American Le Mans Series, while a major development project for the Japanese tyre maker was its return to Pikes Peak with tyres for an electric car. At the Nürburgring Falken returned its Porsche 997 GT3 R with a new 2013 tyre compound and construction. Pole in an early round suggested the team had pace but the car went off in the rain, forced to retire. In the ALMS, Falken’s Porsche faired better, scoring a victory at Baltimore.
During preparations for its production debut in late 2012, the all-electric Audi R8 e-tron has just set a world record for a production vehicle with an electric drive system on the Nürburgring Nordschleife – the toughest test track in the world. Racing driver Markus Winkelhock piloted the high-performance, all-electric sports car around the demanding 12.92-mile track in 8:09.099 minutes.
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.
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