Strong performance for Porsche and Dunlop at Nürburgring

•  Frikadelli Racing takes second place in the seventh VLN round
•  Highest placed Porsches race on Dunlop tyres
•  Norbert Siedler stars with a sensational final stint
•  VLN leaders Kohlhaas / Köhler achieve class victory on Dunlop

At the seventh round of the VLN Endurance Championship, the Dunlop equipped Frikadelli Racing Team was convincingly the fastest of all the Porsche 911 GT3 R entrants. Norbert Siedler and Lance David Arnold took second place of 150 entrants after a strong performance throughout the race. The sister Frikadelli Porsche of Klaus Abbelen, Felipe Laser and Alexander Müller finished fifth - the second Porsche across the line, underlining the suitability of the latest Dunlop tyres on the 911.

Already at the morning practice session, the Frikadelli Porsche team had shown their pace when Lance-David Arnold undercut the eight-minute mark on the 24.4-km combination of the short Grand Prix circuit and the legendary Nordschleife. "The Porsche 911 GT3 R felt good," said the Nordschleife expert after his lap, which briefly earned him provisional pole. "Not only did I have free rein, but I could also use the cool air in the morning, which gives the engine a little extra power. The extra power made itself noticeable on the Nordschleife straight on the uphill passages. "

The two Porsches were part of the lead battle from the start, racing in formation flight for much of the first quarter of the 4 hour race.

In the final hour, Norbert Siedler became one of the race stars, as he was able to gradually close the gap to the leading AMG Mercedes with a series of searing lap times.  "That was really close," said Siedler after the race. "Our car was perfectly prepared by the team and went well. Lance and I also made great use of this potential during the race - and at the very end the victory was even closer. However, a ‘Code 60’ (Virtual Safety Car) phase near the end cost us the overall win. If the race had continued unhindered, they would have had to refuel, and that would have been victory for us. "

Nevertheless, the second place for the team and its tyre supplier was a strong marker. The tyres had shown in a merciless four-hour fight that they are not only stable, but also extremely competitive. "It was a sprint from the first lap today," said Dunlop Product Manager Alexander Kühn after the race. "The Dunlop tyres for the GT3 vehicles have shown excellent performance today. In the end, it was probably only the choice of pit stop timing and the final Code 60 phase, that decided who was at the top of the podium. We were fully competitive, and the two Frikadelli-Porsche have clearly demonstrated the great potential of our tyres by holding a 1-2 position at the midpoint of the race. "

Victory for Dunlop in the SP8 class

In the overall championship classification, a Dunlop team has moved to the top of the leaderboard. Christian Kohlhaas and Stephan Köhler were class winners in the SP8 class with the Ferrari 458 of the racing one GmbH. They had moved forward in the race from 20th place to 11th overall position and won their class crown. They collected important points for the fight for the prestigious title and head into the penultimate round of the season on 6 October as the overall leader. In the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, Werner Guesenbauer / Moritz Oestereich also won the Sp3T class for Team Nigrin Motorsport. "This class victory makes us particularly happy," said Kühn. "Because they have specifically changed the vehicle class to allow tyre competition. And I’m delighted that as the class win confirms that this decision was the right one."

Another Dunlop winner was in the production car class ‘V5’ (over 2.5 to 3.0 liters displacement) achieved. Here, Norbert Fischer , Christian Konnerth  and Daniel Zils in the Porsche Cayman of the Pixum Team Adrenalin Motorsport took the honours.