Peter's race report...

At the eighth VLN race of 2016, the FALKEN Porsche, driven by myself and Martin Ragginger finished in third place, taking the team's second podium of the year.

In terms of tyre development, this was a continuation of the work we started in our last race, VLN 6. Our tyre engineers from Japan brought some new compound and construction FALKEN tyres, which proved successful in taking us another step towards the pace of the front-running cars.

In qualifying, Raggi set a lap record for our car around the Nordschleife - an 8:02. This put us 7th on the grid. Together with great team work and pitstops, we climbed up the ranking during the race with both Raggi and I driving twice each. I had fantastic battles in my first stint, especially with our the Frikadelle Porsche, the Phoenix Racing Audi and the Lexus Prototype. In each case, we came out on top. 

That was my last race of the year for FALKEN Motorsport and a happy way to end the season. Our car's final outing will be at VLN 9 with Wolf Henzler and Alex Imperatori at the wheel.

We arrived to VLN 6 after the summer break with new compound and construction tyres from FALKEN. Our aim was to improve on our 24 hour race pace. This was a success and we definitely took a step forward. I did the fastest lap that a FALKEN Tyre-equipped race car has ever done around the ring in qualifying, with an 8:08 time. However, the pace up front was also very strong and we qualified 12th on the grid. The race went very well for us. We gradually moved up from 12th to the point where I was able to overtake an Audi R8 on the last lap of the race to claim 4th. I want to thank the Japanese tyre technicians for their hard work.
 
We still have work to do with our tyres but gradually we are making progress and hopefully can improve them in the remaining two VLN races that we’re going to do this year.
 

Peter will be part of the official 24 Hours of Le Mans app's live commentary team at this year's race, joining Bob Constanduros, Gilles Dawson and Mark James.

The 24H-LEMANS® app is available via Google Play or App Store for use with a smartphone, tablet and computer. To listen to the commentary, you will need to purchase the premium version (as in in-app purchase). See this page for more information: http://www.lemans.org/en/Page/mobile-app/99. 

From 46th position, Peter took the restart after the Nurburgring 24 Hours was red-flagged 50 minutes into the race due to hail and torrential rain. Here are two exciting laps onboard the FALKEN Porsche, which include numerous overtaking manoeuvres in very wet conditions.

Peter will be at the wheel of the Aston Martin Vulcan – a £1.8m supercar and the British luxury brand’s most intense and exhilarating creation to date – when it makes a headline appearance at this year’s Coventry Motofest event (June 4-5).

The 800-plus bhp, all-carbon fibre Aston Martin Vulcan will run on the Coventry Motofest ring road circuit in its first ever appearance on a UK public road. Peter will give demonstration display laps in two separate slots on the long track programme on both Saturday and Sunday of the festival weekend. Peter has played a core role in the Vulcan programme over the past year.

James Noble, Coventry Motofest Event Director, said: “We are incredibly excited to have the Aston Martin Vulcan taking part in this year’s Coventry Motofest. “It will be a fantastic occasion as the Vulcan runs on a public road circuit for the first time in the UK, offering the crowds at Coventry Motofest the chance to get a unique close up look at this amazing car.

The Aston Martin Vulcan set to appear at Coventry Motofest is one of only 24 examples worldwide and is born out of extensive motorsport experience, using the Aston Martin brand’s flair for design and engineering ingenuity. Styled entirely in-house by the Aston Martin design team led by Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman, and with a design language hinting at the next generation of Aston Martin sports cars, this supercar is powered by the most potent iteration yet of the company’s naturally-aspirated, 7.0-litre V12 petrol engine.

With its 800-plus bhp powerplant developed in conjunction with Aston Martin Racing, this front mid-engined, rear-wheel drive sports car draws extensively on the brand’s rich GT motorsport experience.
Utilising the techniques of world-class motorsport engineering, the supercar sees its power-to-weight ratio exceed those of the GTE cars which compete in the FIA’s annual World Endurance Championship.

Peter and the FALKEN Motorsports team achieved a proud 9th place out of 155 entries at the 44th ADAC Zurich 24h Race at the Nürburgring (May 28-29). The team was also the highest placed Porsche. 

The "Green Hell" lived up to its name plunging from bright sunshine at the start to race-stopping severe rain and hail storms within 50 minutes. As a large part of the track was impassable thanks to a covering of ice, there was a forced break of three hours. After flying restart, which saw the FALKEN Porsche 911 GT3 R positioned a third of the way down the field, Peter drove a defiant and hugely successful stint to make up more than 25 positions, the car excelling on the still wet track with good lap times.

The night passed without incident for the FALKEN team, and by the halfway point of the race, it held a top 20 place for the first time. It was Peter, who this year raced his 13th Nürburgring 24 Hour race and his 10th with FALKEN motorsport, who brought the car over the finishing line.

"We are more than satisfied with our race result," says Markus Bögner, Managing Director at Falken Tyre Europe GmbH. "Also this time were able to show that our tires can take on the most adverse weather conditions. Many thanks at this point to our partner Schnabl Engineering, who yet again demonstrated its skill when it comes to running Porsches.

The FALKEN Porsche was one of 11 cars that was equipped with a transmission system for the Vodafone Live Stream of the race. For the 2016 race highlights, including some of the in-car footage of Peter's no. 44 car, follow this link https://www.facebook.com/nuerburgring/videos/10157094913430454/. 

Peter will be back at the Ring for two further VLN races in 2016.

Peter has been invited by SDR Motorsports to test its VisitFlorida.com Corvette Daytona Prototype car at Daytona next week, as part of the two-day  IMSA-sanctioned test on November 17th and 18th. 

Once again, Falken Motorsports has managed to perfectly capture the intrigue of "The Ring" with this epic account of the team's tremendous podium finish in the 2015 Nürburgring 24 Hours.

Follow this link to read Peter's interview with Daily Sportscar's Stephen Kilby:
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2015/07/23/peter-dumbreck-talks-n24-hot-cockpits-and-doing-a-reverse-chris-hoy.html