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.
Falken Motorsports drivers Peter Dumbreck and Martin Ragginger claimed a third-place finish at the eighth round of the 2016 VLN Endurance Championship on 25 September. Held at the legendary Nürburgring race circuit in Germany, it’s the second VLN podium finish of the season for the Falken duo. “After changing from the previous Porsche 997 to […]
Walkenhorst Motorsport completed its first ever win in its BMW Z4 GT3 car following an intense battle in the heat of the Nürburgring Nordschleife in the fourth round of the VLN Endurance Championship. The result was also significant for Dunlop, since it marked the first win achieved on the brand’s new generation GT3 tyres since they were introduced for the 2015 season. The VLN championship features open tyre competition, with seven different tyre manufacturers in the running.
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.
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.”
Premium brand tyre manufacturers have emphasised youth development as a keystone of their activities practically since John Boyd Dunlop’s famous fitment to his son’s tricycle, and Sumitomo’s Falken brand has focused its engagement with grassroots sport in this way during 2013. First it introduced a sponsorship and support scheme that enabled young drivers access to subsidised and free tyres in the Association of North Western Car Clubs (ANWCC) K11 Micra Challenge and the Under 17 Motor AutoSOLO Championship for standard cars. It followed that with support for 11-year old Catherine Harris in National Ministox. The championships used the ZIEX ZE912 while the younger sister of 2013 F1 stock car world champion Tom Harris used both the ZIEX ZE912 and Sincera tyres on her Mini.
The German Busch twins won an emphatic one minute victory in 12 October’s VLN round on the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife. Their Audi R8 LMS Ultra carries the ‘Twin Busch’ livery of the brother’s successful garage equipment business and has been run on Kumho tyres throughout 2013, with increasingly rewarding results.
The Falken Motorsports team has its sights on a top 10 ranking as it makes its way to the starting grid for its 14th Nürburgring 24 Hours. The team will take an upgraded Porsche 911 GT3 R to compete against a field of over 200 entrants. Falken is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, adopting the motto: “30 Years of Performance”.
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.
Falken Motorsports shares that it will field its Porsche 997 GT3 R in this year’s VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring and Nürburgring 24 Hours events. It says a raft of performance upgrades for its Porsche have been carried out and, coupled with an unchanged driver line up of Sebastian Asch, Peter Dumbreck, Wolf Henzler and Martin Ragginger, Falken Motorsports says it holds the “clear aim of a top ten finish in the 24 Hour event.”
Dunlop is looking forward to the newly refreshed European Le Mans series, describing it as a “major step forward in securing the future of endurance racing in Europe.” But this also means that the company will not supply the 2013 American Le Mans Series.
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.
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.
The Avon brand, manufactured by Cooper Tire & Rubber Company Europe Ltd, has unveiled the fourth generation of its GT racing tyre since it took over as sole supplier and title sponsor of the series in 2006. Avon Tyres Motorsport technical manager, Mike Lynch, believes the new tyre will be around a second quicker than its predecessor around most circuits on the British GT calendar but, importantly, will also be durable enough for teams to use strategies demanding longer stints.
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