BILSTEIN remains lord of the ring

Ennepetal (Germany), May 19, 2010 – After a hard-fought and dramatic race in which many cars dropped out, BILSTEIN celebrated two places on the winners' rostrum. Positions two and three in this year’s 24-Hour Race at the Nürburgring went to the Farnbacher Ferrari F430 GTC and the Audi R8 LMS of Phoenix Racing, both equipped with BILSTEIN suspension. The quartet at the wheel of the Ferrari produced a faultless performance to finish in a superb second position. The drivers of the Phoenix Audi steered well clear of trouble and came in third by recording consistently good lap times. A very positive result: BILSTEIN performed as the most visible suspension supplier in the field providing sport suspension to four of the top-ten cars. Most of the 202 high-performance racers went to the start line at the 38th holding of this arduous long-distance classic with sport suspension from Ennepetal in Germany.

After the qualifying rounds it was clear that half of the top-ten cars in the start line-up would be going into the race with BILSTEIN sport suspension – including the car in pole position and in positions two, three, four and six on the grid. In the 24-hour battle the Ferrari F430 GTC of the Farnbacher racing team secured victory in the SP 7 class and second position in the overall result. The Audi R8 LMS of Phoenix Racing and Black Falcon took places one and three in the very popular SP 9 GT3 class, equivalent to positions three and five in the overall ranking. The road-legal Porsche 997 GT3 RS with the start number 11 was equipped for the first time with the series-produced, electronically adjustable BILSTEIN DampTronic^® suspension (PASM). Its fourth position in the SP 7 class and 13^th position overall exceeded all expectations. This proves that series products can satisfy even the toughest requirements and shows that BILSTEIN is bringing motor sports performance to the open road. Together with the smaller CC classes SP 4T, SP 8T and V6, BILSTEIN finished top in five classes.

The BILSTEIN motor sports truck was a much frequented venue in the paddock again this year. The suspension specialist provided advice to keen amateur drivers and professional motorsports drivers alike, directly on the race course. The BILSTEIN mechanics and engineers were available to the racing teams around the clock at the mobile workshop. When the second placed Ferrari was damaged during practice, the BILSTEIN team helped to recondition the car in time for the actual race. On Saturday the professional drivers Walter Röhrl and Marc Basseng signed autographs at the motor sports truck. BILSTEIN congratulates all successful racing teams for their strong performance at this nerve-racking marathon.

BILSTEIN is always at home at the Nürburgring: on the ring boulevard in the showroom of the Digi-Tec Performance tuner and at the RACEBOX service point directly on the “Nordschleife”.