Nürburg/Germany, 30th May 2017 – The 24-hour classic in the Eifel mountains was bathed in magnificent sunshine. The 160 teams started in hot summery conditions on Saturday afternoon. Rain on parts of the circuit with 30 minutes of the race remaining made for a thrilling finale, with the lead changing hands. Premium tyre maker Hankook supplied 21 cars with its race tyres of the type Ventus Race, in all necessary dimensions and in both the dry and wet version. In total, 1500 tyres were transported to the Eifel region of Germany for the event. Hankook’s Ventus premium race tyre performed perfectly at all times in a wide range of conditions at the iconic, 25.378-kilometre circuit. The slick-tyre provided a consistently high level of grip both in daytime track temperatures of up to 47 degrees and on a cooler track during the night. This high level of consistency from the Hankook race tyre meant that all the drivers were still able to clock fast lap times at the end of their stints.

The first official race outing of the new BMW M4 GT4, which also entered the race exclusively on Hankook race tyres, attracted a lot of attention. Driven by Germans Dirk Adorf and Jörg Weidinger, alongside the Brits Ricky Collard and Jethro Bovingdon, the car won the SP 8T class and finished a respectable 37th overall. The global sales launch of the BMW M4 GT4 was timed to coincide with the start of the ADAC Zürich 24H Race. Designed for the BMW customer racing, the new model will also be supplied exclusively with Hankook tyres.

Manfred Sandbichler, Hankook Motorsport Director Europe: “We are very proud to be the exclusive tyre supplier for the new BMW M4 GT4. This cooperation is a further milestone for us in international motorsport. In addition, the exclusive supply contract for the TCR and GT4 classes has once again proved that Hankook is the right partner when it comes down to providing the teams with premium level mono-make tyres and services on a large scale. A big compliment goes to our service crew, of course, which did a flawless job all weekend again, in order to ensure optimum tyre supplies to the cars under contract. Despite the large range of temperatures, our tyres provided all drivers with a consistently high level of grip and thus the best possible car control.”