Falken Motorsports and their Porsche 911 GT3 R has to hold the Porsche flags high at the upcoming Nürburgring 24 Hours. With Manthey Racing fielding no topflight 911, and all the other Porsche teams having at least one amateur driver in their line-up, the Falken quartet of Wolf Henzler, Martin Ragginger, Peter Dumbreck and newcomer Alexandre Imperatori are the de-facto Porsche spearhead. “I think we certainly, of all the Porsche teams, have the strongest driver line-up, so let’s hope we’ll also have a chance to show our pace in the race and fight for the overall win,” said Ragginger. “I’m also happy to have Alexandre Imperatori as part of our roster – I’ve raced him in the Asian Porsche Carrera Cup for the past few years.”
The year for Falken Motorsports has been one of ups and downs so far, the low point being Peter Dumbreck’s crash after a technical failure during the RCN round at the Nürburgring 24 Hours qualifying race. Just a week after the car was a total write off, Imperatori and Ragginger scored a first VLN podium for Falken at Round 2. “We certainly had our low point, but we have also had some very good results so far,” concluded Ragginger. “Overall, we are very well sorted for the Nürburgring 24 Hours.”
His teammate Peter Dumbreck added: “Even a wet race wouldn’t be the end of the world for us; last year we showed that we have a good pace in the wet. Of course, in the rain the chances of something going wrong are greater, because you’ll have more accidents and double yellow zones. So a dry race is the safer option, but if it’s wet we’ll have to live with it.”
The Nürburgring 24 Hours always has been a race that pairs amateur drivers and hobby teams with fully-fledged professional drivers and works teams. “I think that mix makes this race so special – you have the factory teams and drivers from various manufactures and you have the guys than only do this on their weekends,” continued the Scot. “This is also part of the obstacle for us professional drivers, to get by these amateur drivers. Getting past the slower cars without contact makes this race so mentally challenging, and so a four driver line-up is very important.”
Sören Herweg
