MOtOcrOss sUccEss! - Dunlop Motorsport

NÜRbuRGRING 24 hOuRS SPa 24 hOuRS
BMW led Dunlop’s challenge in arguably the most challenging race in
the world to secure a podium finish from the annual 24 Hour race on
the fearsome Nürburgring Nordschleife.
A strong performance from Augusto Farfus, Jörg Muller, Uwe Alzen
and Pedro Lamy saw them following up their victory in 2010 with a
second place finish behind the leading Manthey Porsche after an
almost flawless race – the only problem coming after a collision in the
first quarter of the race that resulted in a three minute stop-go
penalty. After a total of 156 laps of the challenging circuit, the quartet
ended the race just 4mins 23secs behind the winner after a battle
that raged from start to finish.
The sister car of Dirk Müller, Dirk Werner and Dirk Adorf had battled
back from an hour-long pitstop for brake repairs to sit inside the top
20 before being forced to retire with a technical issue.
Fellow Dunlop partners Volkswagen also enjoyed success with a
1-2 class finish for its biogas Sciroccos. Carlos Sainz, Nasser
Al-Attiyah, Giniel de Villiers and Klaus Niedzwiedz took 26th place
overall, with Niedzwiedz also driving the sister car that took 46th
overall. The success of the Sciroccos made up for a tough outing for
the three 450bhp Golf 24s, which showed speed but failed to make it
to the finish.
Dunlop development partners ROWE Racing secured a top 20
finish with its leading Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.
Although Dunlop missed out on victory in the annual Spa 24 Hours,
its leading team produced one of the performances of the weekend
to secure a podium finish despite being forced to start towards the
rear of the field.
Claudia Hurtgen, Edward Sandstrom and Dirk Werner started the
Ardennes classic from 49th on the grid after losing their times from
the Thursday evening qualifying session due to a rules infringement.
However, making the most of their Dunlop tyres, the trio stormed
through the pack in their Need for Speed Team Schubert BMW Z4
GT3 to finish second overall, just two laps down on the winning Audi.
“In the race we tried to play off our strengths,” team manager
Stefan Wendl said. “This primarily involved the good long-range
performance of the Dunlop tyres that we were able to double-and
triple stint. This saved us a lot of time.”
The BMW trio were joined on the podium by a second
Dunlop-shod team, with the Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3
of Kenneth Heyer, Thomas Jager and Stephane Lemeret rounding
out the top three.
Amongst the Dunlop teams, the United Autosports Audi’s
garnered plenty of attention with its big-name driver line-up, with
Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson amongst the drivers in the
#23 R8, which finished 13th overall and sixth in the Pro-Am class.
The car driven by Mark Blundell and Eddie Cheever was amongst
those to retire from the race.