Silence may be golden, but when it indicates that a thick fog is preventing all track action from occurring at the start of a packed race weekend it begins to lose its lustre.
Indeed, it wasn’t until 13:25 that conditions improved enough for engines to be fired up and helmets to be donned, at which point the field for the ADAC 24h-Classic race began their Free Practice session. This was 90 minutes later than scheduled, but they at least fared better than the ATS Formel 3 Cup runners who had seen both practice and qualifying (i.e. all their pre-race track time) lost to the weather; and even though the fog had receded, visibility wasn’t much better for the Classic runners, as mist was replaced by large plumes of spray arising from the heavy rain that was now falling over the GP Circuit.
But they are hardy folk out here and they weren’t going to allow a touch of inclement weather to affect things too much, and the only amendment to the 24 Hour schedule was a reduction in Free Practice to 60 minutes from 90.
During the earlier (German Language) drivers’ briefing, there had been some controversy when the new yellow flag rules had been announced. The main change was that a waved yellow would be preceded by a stationary yellow at the previous marshal’s post, but that between the two flags overtaking would still be allowed. Curiously, this didn’t appear to concern the drivers in the English-language briefing.
The Classic field ended 60 minutes of slipping, sliding and crunching and exited the track to leave the Nordschleife clear for the 24 Hours cars. The pitlane opened at 14:55 as (re)scheduled and numerous brave souls began to venture out onto the GP Circuit in truly horrendous conditions.
It would be 15 full minutes before the timing screens had anything to show us, and it was Wolfgang Kaufmann who set the first time – 11:27.414 in the #36 Kremer Porsche 997 GT3 KR.
That time was soon bettered quite significantly by the #2 Abt Team Mamerow Audi R8 LMS ultra, which set a 10:51.896.
With half of the session complete, SP9 cars filled the top eight spots, with the #4 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra leading the way on 10:09.530; just two-tenths quicker than the #14 Audi Race Experience R8.
Ninth was the leading SP7 class runner – the #12 Wochenspiegel Team Manthey Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (11:16.490) – with the #18 sister car in 11th.
The #44 Falken Motorsports Porsche 997 GT3 R went four seconds clear at the top of the timing screens after 40 minutes, with a 10:45.421…
…while the #7 AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 put in an appearance in the top 20 for the first time with a 19th-fastest 11:27.218.
It wasn’t possible to say for sure which drivers had set these times as the transponders do not identify individual names (while the online timing was helpfully still displaying last year’s race!)
The Lieb/Dumas/Luhr/Bernhard-pedalled #18 RSR popped into second place with 12 minutes to go (10:47.657), but five minutes later the #29 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi set a time 12.515s quicker than the #44 Porsche – 10:32.906) – suggesting that the severity of the rain was abating and that a drier line was appearing. The #2 Audi then improved its time to a second-quickest 10:41.074, before being pushed down to a third by a new fastest time; this coming courtesy of the #23 Rowe Racing Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, which completed the 25 kilometres in 10:30.759.
And the #9 Black Falcon SLS had appeared in third (10:35.364) as the hour approached its conclusion.
Before the session ended, though, the Falken Porsche reclaimed P1 with a 10:26.136, while the #11 Frikadelli Racing Team Porsche 997 GT3 R had taken third with a 10:32.621; but then the #23 SLS completed its final lap several minutes after the hour had expired to lower the benchmark to 10:18.667. The #29 tried to take early honours for Audi, but fell 1.056s short.
These are the lead cars from the top six classes:
SP 9 GT3 #23 Rowe Racing Mercedes SLS 10:18.667 1st
SP 7 #18 Manthey Porsche RSR 10:31.947 5th
SP 4T #105 Besaplast Audi TT 10:59.123 18th
SP 8 #81 Guttroff Corvette C6 11:01.303 19th
SP 3T #111 Rader Audi TT 11:11.826 25th
SP 10 GT4 #60 Mathol Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 11:18.194 28th
Next up is the first qualifying session, beginning at 19:35.
MH
