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The Nurburgring Nordschleife: A living legend

15 miles of circuit, 250,000 fans and a 24 hour race make for a spectacular event

The Nurburgring at night
Image: The Nurburgring at night

A living legend? Or as Jackie Stewart branded it “the green hell”? Whatever your view point there is no doubt the Nurburgring Nordschleife remains one of the toughest tests in motorsport.

Set in the Eifel forests at over 15 miles in length, with around 90 corners and over 300 metres of elevation change, it truly is a unique challenge for driver and machine.

No matter how often you see it on television or play it on a computer game, it isn’t until you complete a lap of the Nordschleife that you can truly appreciate the scale of the track, the number of corners and the altitude changes.

Couple that with racing through the darkness as part of a 24 hour race and it becomes one of the toughest events in the world.

“It is definitely the most challenging circuit in the world,” Falken’s Peter Dumbreck told Sky Sports after finishing his final stint at the wheel of the team’s Porsche.

“The 24 hour race really takes it out of you. I’ve done three stints and one double and physically I am a bit tired now as we are pushing to the maximum. There is no endurance race anymore, it is a 24 hour sprint race.”

The grid walk was rather busy
Image: The grid walk was rather busy

Leaving the paddock and heading out into the forest to watch in the darkness is a unique experience as around 250,000 fans set up camp around the track for the weekend.

From makeshift grandstands in silage trailers to mobile discos that would leave some nightclubs envious, the atmosphere is incredible and unlike any other in motorsport.

The fans put on as much of a show as the racing
Image: The fans put on as much of a show as the racing

Dumbreck originally learnt the circuit in a hire car, after doing what many fans do and paying to lap the famous venue. That knowledge has then been honed over the years, which becomes key when driving at night, particularly when it starts raining as was the case this year.

“When it came to the night stint I was straight out on intermediates as it was raining during my first night stint. You always have a bit of a safety net where you go ‘I’m not going to push too hard yet, I’m going to work up to speed’,” he explained.

“But the drivers that don’t have that safety net, well they crashed during that rainy session and many cars did crash and they went out and we are still running. You use your experience to bring yourself through and maybe not push quite as hard as you could do and build up as it gets drier again.”

The Falken Porsche

The Falken Porsche did indeed keep running as the team of Dumbreck, Wolf Henzler, Alexandre Imperatori and Martin Ragginger worked their way up the field from a starting position of 19th to finish on the podium.

For Falken, though, the race isn’t just about motorsport. The firm use the 24 hour race as a way of developing technology for their road tyres.

“It is the hardest race in the world and it is one at which we want to show our technology and prove our technology,” said Falken’s European Marketing Director Markus Bogner.

“The circuit is actually like being on a real street, there are lots of corners except that we drive much faster than on the real street. On a normal Formula 1 circuit it is very easy, but here you have highs, you have downs , uphill, downhill, lefts, rights, bumps and completely different types of service.”

That unique test for the tyres then filters down to the company’s road rubber.

“One of the good examples of what we learn here is with the compounds. We use very new and very expensive materials which we would never use at the beginning on street tyres. We learn how the compounds work and that is very expensive, but you can then get it into production and you can introduce it into the street tyres.”

Driver change at Falken

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