Here’s a superb video from the Falken Porsche crew of a Martin Ragginger qualifying lap on a cold, misty Nürburgring last Friday night. Raggi did this lap just as I was tucking into steak on a stone with the Falken press guys at the Pistenklause. Ah, good times.

St44 Falken Motorsports; Porsche 997 GT3 R

Only been home from Germany a day and a bit and already missing it. Not spoke much about Falken this year, but the team had a really great race for a while. At one stage, the Falken Porsche 997 was top 911 on merit, well ahead of the Manthey 991s.

Peter Dumbreck took the car from tenth to fourth in his first stint, after the race restarted on Monday morning. As Opel DTM team boss, Volker Strycek, used to say: “Give me six Peter Dumbrecks as my drivers”.

St44 Falken Motorsports; Porsche 997 GT3 R

Sebastian stuck it on the grass later, apparently reversing it uphill for a bit, then Wolf clipped a backmarker while overtaking: one of those racing incidents. Sad end to a great charge: they really were on for a top five finish or better. It’s at least what Falken deserve, having been one of the principal Nurburgring 24-Hour sponsors for so many years.

Got some pics of my own to upload later: this year was such a great race. Aston nearly got it but not quite: Manthey had a few shots at the top five but it wasn’t meant to be. Mercedes’ first victory had the small consolation of three Porsche Supercup drivers in the cockpit. They did a good job.

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The Falken Porsche has entered the top 5 at the 2013 Nurburgring 24-Hour. Peter Dumbreck took the race restart an hour or so ago in P10, but just entered the pits from P4 to hand over to Martin Ragginger.

Screen Shot 2013-05-20 at 10.35.56

The number 18 Manthey Porsche is holding P8, running as high as P5 during pitstops etc. Haribo Porsche number 8 (above) is down in 15th position but running some reasonable lap times.

Current standings look like this (below) – it is pretty rough on track, with rain now easing but fog and spray reducing visibility. We’ve still got over a quarter of the race left, so things are far from decided. Could Mercedes win its first Nurburgring 24-Hour?

Screen Shot 2013-05-20 at 10.30.30

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Red Flag at Nurburgring 24-hour: Aston P1, Porsche P2/P3

May 19, 2013

The 2013 Nurburgring 24-Hour is under red flag conditions. The race director has shut things down for the minute, as heavy rain batters the circuit and fog begins to gather. I abandoned the track just after the flag was waved and headed for the hills. Literally as it turned out, with major sat nav detours [...]

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Manthey Porsche 2 & 3 at Nurburgring 24 Hour

May 19, 2013

Manthey Porsches lie second and third at the 2013 Nurburgring 24-Hour. The positions were earned on merit: it’s a very encouraging situation for the team that mirrors some of its best results in last year’s WEC (below). The reason is rain. Time here now is 22:00 and we’ve been racing for five hours. It’s been [...]

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Exciting Top 40 Qualifying at Nurburging 24-Hour

May 18, 2013

We’ve just watched a gripping Top 40 shoot-out at Nurburgring 24-Hour: really excellent stuff. The 007 Aston of Pedro Lamy had a track of its own for its first flying lap, setting an 8:21 lap time but almost instantly eclipsed by Stippler’s R8 Audi, also crewed by Porsche Supercup star, Michael Ammermuller. First Porsche across [...]

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Top 40 Shoot Out Kicks off at Nurburging 24 2013

May 18, 2013

I’m at the Nurburgring, for the 2013 Nurburgring 24-Hour race. The weather is dry but not that hot for the Top 40 Qualifying shoot out, about to get started on the Nordschleife. This year’s race runs from Sunday into Monday. Monday is a public holiday here, so most people need take no time off work [...]

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Seb Loeb: Muted Porsche Supercup Debut

May 16, 2013

Martin Brundle pulled an interesting interview out during the Sky F1 coverage of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona last weekend, catching up with WRC legend, Sebastien Loeb, on his traditional pre-start gridwalk. Loeb had completed the first of his Porsche Supercup guest drives a short time earlier (above), so the conversation revolved around that. [...]

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Tuthill Three in Morocco Porsche Heaven

May 14, 2013

The three Tuthill Porsche cars taking part in this year’s Morocco Historic Rally are enjoying a reliable thrash through the tough north African desert. Three stages made up Day 1 of the 2013 Morocco Historic Rally yesterday, totalling almost an hour’s hard running. The Tuthill Porsches of Paolo Faldini, Jan Hagman and Martin Aguirre all [...]

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Happy Birthday, Wolfgang Porsche

May 10, 2013

Birthday congratulations to Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, who is 70 years old today. A popular member of the global Porsche community, Ferry’s youngest son has some great Porsche friends around the world – I’ve seen his signature on many a 911 bonnet. Wolfgang was born on the 10 May 1943, at the family estate in Zell [...]

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Specialist Vehicle Preparations Porsche 935 Project For Sale

May 9, 2013

Dom at SVP Porsche has decided to sell his Porsche 935 build, to concentrate on daily driver Porsche sales, air-cooled Porsche parts development and water-cooled Porsche builds for racing and rallying. I’ve spent some time with the car over the last twelve months. It seems like a good opportunity for someone: certainly worth discussing if [...]

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