Racing lines: How to survive the Nurburgring 24 Hours

Like the Indianapolis 500, the Nürburgring has its own rookie orientation before drivers can race in the 24 Hours. “It doesn’t matter who you are,” Peter explains. “You could be Lewis Hamilton, you still need a permit and do two VLN races in a lower powered car to be assessed. That’s good, but they don’t differentiate who can apply. 

“Joe Bloggs has done well at work and wants to go and race. He only wants to drive the Nürburgring, he’s never driven anywhere else and he’s let loose. I wonder why he wants to be around us. Why would you want to put yourself in that situation where you have a line of GT3 cars coming at double your speed? Terrifying.”

For specialists such as Dumbreck, circuit knowledge isn’t a problem, but he is vigilant against complacency. “You can know every inch and every bump, and I do,” he says. “But the variable you can’t know is the weather, which can change around the circuit on a single lap. Then you can come round a corner and be on a trail of oil. You look up and see a flag, but it’s too late and you’re in the wall. I’ve had that before.

“In the cockpit, it’s busy! But like anything in life, the more you do it the easier it becomes. Go and stick your road car at 100mph (on the autobahn of course…) and in the beginning it feels fast, but after a while it doesn’t. Bring your car down to 70mph and you feel like you are creeping along. It’s that perception. Once you get used to it and know what to expect and get into a rhythm, time does slow down. 

“But you also have to be careful not to lapse and think this is all going well. You have all kinds of thoughts in the car and you have to keep your mind on the job, because all of a sudden it can bite you. Modern-day circuits, you’ve got run-off and can make a mistake. But there, one mistake and the tendency is you’re going into the wall. At best you’ve got a few feet of grass until you hit something…”

When Dumbreck first raced in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, in an Opel DTM car, it was very much the ‘forgotten classic’ of long-distance racing, little more than a glorified club race. That has changed dramatically in the past 15 years thanks largely to the growth of GT3. Bragging rights, particularly among the premium German brands, is now a powerful incentive.

Driving for a tyre brand like Falken offers its own challenges. “There are pluses and minuses,” he says. “The big plus is that you want to drive for a manufacturer, either of cars or tyres, because that’s how you make a living. With a tyre make, you have the benefit of having brand new tyres being thrown at you all the time, but it can maybe detract from the car set-up. 

“Our team is focused on constantly improving the tyres. Go to series such as British GT, ADAC GT, Blancpain GT and everyone is on a spec tyre. You don’t have any choice. The VLN is one of the few places left where the tyres are open, and you have seven or eight tyre manufacturers supplying the grid. It means we have a tyre war going on, so we drive on confidential tyres offering much more grip. It’s cool to be involved in that because your lap times are quicker and that means it’s more fun to drive.”