Just six days and an hour after the chequered flag fell at the 24 Hours of Le Mans the next race twice around the clock begins, with the Nürburgring 24 Hours taking place this coming weekend. In total there are 175 cars and more than 650 drivers entered. As in recent years, the GT3 cars will dominate the classic in the Eifel mountains once again. And after the first four VLN races all four German manufactures, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, are on par, having won a race apiece.
The Favourites
In total there are around seven definitive favourites, lead by last years champions Black Falcon. Only Jeroen Bleekemolen is back to defend his overall victory, his new teammates being Lance David Arnold, Andreas Simonsen and Christian Menzel.
Just like most of the favourites, their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 is running on Michelin tyres for 2014. In addition to the Black Falcon car, one of the two Rowe SLS is also primed to fight for the overall victory. Jan Seyffarth, Thomas Jäger, Klaus Graf and Richard Göransson will pedal the SLS through the Green Hell.
Phoenix Racing and their Audi R8 LMS ultra always has to be taken serious and in 2014 the team is back to fielding two cars that could find themselves at the top of the timing screens come Sunday 4pm. Marc Basseng, Frank Stippler and Laurens Vanthoor share one of the two R8s with newly crowned Le Mans Winner Marcel Fässler, while the other car sees Christian Mamerow, Rene Rast, Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock share driving duties. Certainly the Basseng, Stippler, Vanthoor, Fässler R8 is a leading candidate for overall honours, with Laurens Vanthoor having won two out of his three career VLN starts and with his teammates being known commodities in the Green Hell.
BMW is once again supporting Schubert Motorsport and Marc VDS Racing with works drivers and additional support. Out of the four BMW Z4 GT3s, two stand out and are in a good position to stand on the top step once the clock has hit zero. Maxime Martin, Uwe Alzen, Marco Wittmann and Jörg Müller share the lead VDS Z4, while Lucas Luhr, Alexander Sims, Dirk Müller and Dirk Werner will pedal the Schubert counterpart. The VDS Z4 might have a small edge on its competition, after Martin, Alzen and Wittmann won the 24h Qualifying Race in April.
Porsche is tied with Manthey Racing for their success at the Nordschleife, but this year Falken Motorsport actually fields the only 911 with true winning potential. Alexandre Imperatori is new to the team, replacing Sebastian Asch. Martin Ragginger, Peter Dumbreck and Wolf Henzler have all been retained for another season. The success of the Falken 911 will depend on which tyres they have at their disposal – if everything goes according to plan will we see the turquoise-blue Porsche cross the finish line in first place come Sunday?
The Lead Circle
Behind the above mentioned seven cars there are multiple cars that could surprise in the race, but all have maybe a small weakness.
Back for another year is the works entered Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the famous Bilstein colours. What would Stefan Mücke, Darren Turner and Pedro Lamy give to cross the line in first place and dedicate the win to the late Allan Simonsen, on the anniversary of the Great Dane’s passing? The weak link in the Aston Martin might be their driver line up as all of the other teams usually use a four driver crew. If one of the drivers breaks down in his performance the load on the other two rises exponentially and might lead to losing contact with the lead group.
A surprise candidate for a front running position is the Dörr Motorsport McLaren MP4-12C GT3. Over the winter Dörr’s McLaren has made numerous visits to McLaren GT and in 2014 the team is enjoying the support from McLaren GT technicians and works drivers Alvaro Parente and Kevin Estre.
Paired with Peter Kox and Tim Mullen this forms a force to be reckoned with. Parente is actually new to the Nordschleife, he will have to do the mandatory class in the days leading up to the race. If the car stays out of any trouble on track and from the technical site we might see a McLaren on one of the three podium steps.
A year after its debut in the Nürburgring 24 Hours the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 is back, but this time fighting for top honours. Nissan GT Academy Team RJN is fielding two GT-Rs this weekend and the line up of Lucas Ordonez, Alex Buncombe, Nick Heidfeld and Florian Strauss could very well surprise in the race, just take a look at their pole position from the third VLN race of the season. Questions might be raised about the reliability of the GT-R on the Nordschleife but a trouble free run might put the GT Academy on another podium.
Phoenix Racing has another Audi Team on their toes, with Prosperia C.Abt Racing fielding two Audi R8 LMS ultras. The Hankook shod R8s are shared by Richard Westbrook/ Marco Seefried/ Nicki Thiim/ Alexander Müller and Christopher Mies/ Christer Jöns/ Niclas Kentenich/ Dominik Schwager. All eight drivers have proven their potential at the Nürburgring so the success depends on the performance of their Hankook tyres and if they are able to keep up with the lead pack from the green flag.
HTP Motorsport was actually one of the surprise teams from the 24h Qualifying Race in April, when Maximilian Götz put the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 onto pole position. The fearsome foursome of Götz and Kenneth Heyer, Roland Rehfeld plus Harold Primat is back for the 24 hours hoping to take away a fine position. Also the second Rowe-Racing SLS to be driven by Maro Engel, Nico Bastian, Christian Hohenadel and Michael Zehe could end up in one of the top positions. Team owner Zehe has three strong partners and if he doesn’t take the wheel too often he might be able to call himself a 24 hours victor in just a week’s time.
The second cars of Schubert Motorsport and Marc VDS Racing are good back ups to their lead cars. At Schubert we have Claudia Hürtgen, Dominik Baumann, Jens Klingmann and Martin Tomczyk sharing the second car, while over at VDS it’s Dirk Adorf, Markus Palttala, Bas Leinders and Nicky Catsburg in the second Z4 GT3.
The Mid-Pack Racers
With over 31 GT3 cars entered for the Nürburgring 24 Hours there are still multiple cars we have to preview, but in the mid-pack we’ll also find the first non GT3-car. The Wochenspiegel Porsche 911 GT3 RSR should win the SP-Pro class if everything goes according to plan, as they only have one other car in their class. Georg Weiss, Jochen Krumbach, Michael Jacobs and Oliver Kainz are attempting their first 24 hours race of the season and are also slated to race in the Spa 24 Hours. For the race in the Green Hell they will have set their focus on a position within the best 15 positions.
Despite no official works entry there are, in addition to Wolf Henzler, several Porsche works drivers lent out to teams for the weekend. At the Haribo Racing Team Jörg Bergmeister will share the 911 GT3 R with Hans Guido Riegel, Mike Stursberg and Norbert Siedler.
Over at Frikadelli Racing we have Patrick Pilet share the 911 with Patrick Huisman, Klaus Abbelen and Sabine Schmitz. Both cars won’t fight for top honours but very well could end up in the best 15 positions.
In total there are eight Audi R8 LMS ultras entered, of which four will definitely fight for the front positions; the additional four are likely to end up inside the top 20. Roman Rusinov is back for another Nürburgring 24 Hours taking his G Drive backing to Team WRT, where he’ll share the G Drive Racing R8 with Nico Müller, Edward Sandström and Stephane Ortelli. Twin Busch Motorsport sees Manuel Lauck and Stefan Landmann share the Kumho-shod R8 with the twins Marc and Dennis Busch. The final two R8s come from the Audi race experience: one has Christiaan Frankenhout and Rahel Frey anchor the line-up, while the other car sees sports car veterans Pierre Kaffer, Frank Biela and Marco Werner share the R8 with extreme sky diver Felix Baumgartner. Running under the “From Heaven to Green Hell” motto, a faultless performance by Baumgartner could put the car in line for a top-15 finishing position.
Lending strong support to their lead car will be the task for the second Nissan GT Academy Team RJN GT-R, which will see Michael Krumm, Tetsuya Tanaka, Kazuki Hoshino and Katsumaa Chiyo behind the wheel. The third GT-R comes from Schulze Motorsport, where Michael and Tobias Schulze will share driving duties with Kazunori Yamauchi and Jordan Tresson.
A year after having a nightmare 24 hour race Dörr Motorsport is fielding two McLaren MP4-12C GT3 and their second car is also running within the role of back up for their lead McLaren. Sebastian Asch and Sascha Bert are new to the team and share the car with seasoned McLaren veterans Rudi Adams and Arno Klasen. Also likely to end up in the mid pack is the lone Ferrari F458 Italia GT3 in the race. GT Corse by Rinaldi fields their prancing horse for Alexander Mattschull, Pierre Ehret, Mike Jäger and Andrea Barlesi.
Walkenhorst Motorsport is another team fielding a couple of BMW Z4 GT3 in the race, albeit on Dunlop tyres. One of their car is to be driven by Christopher Brück, Max Sandritter, Ferdinand Stuck and Dennis Rostek. Their car will spot numerous child hand prints that were put onto the car as part of a fundraiser run. The other car will have Ralf Oeverhaus, Henry Walkenhorst, Stefan Aust and Peter Posavac behind the wheel.
A strong run is also in the cards for GetSpeed Performance and their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, after winning the SP7 class in the 24h Qualifying race and dominating the Porsche Cup class in the VLN season so far. Steve Jans, Adam Osieka and Dieter Schornstein Jr are out to score another class victory.
The Exotics
The Nürburgring 24 hours always had its special appeal to special cars and this is the case again in 2014, although there are actually only two truly special cars in the race. First off, the Lexus LFA is back for another race in the Green Hell, while in addition to the standard LFA Gazoo Racing will also field a car titled the LFA Code X, which runs an improved engine in addition to a full carbon body. Akira Ida, Juichi Wakisaka, Takuto Igushi and Hiroaki Ishiura are slated to drive the LFA Code X.
The other special car is the Opel Manta, which defines the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The car is once again to be driven by Volker Strycek, Olaf Beckmann, Peter Hass and Jürgen Schulten.
The Nürburgring 24 Hours also always had its appeal to drivers from all over the world and the 2014 edition is no different. Rob Huff, 2012 WTCC champion, is having just his third race outing at the Nordschleife this coming weekend. Huffy will share an Audi TT-RS with BTCC racer Robb Holland plus Richard Meins and Kevin Gleason. The car is the favourite to take home the class honours in the SP4T class.
Also in for his first crack at the Nürburgring 24 Hours is Stefan Johansson. The swede will share a Mazda MX-5 together with Owen Mildenhall, Wolfgang Kaufmann and Teruaki Kato.
The Mazda is fielded by Jota Sport, who – coming fresh off their success in the 24 Hours of Le Mans – are also once again in prime position to win the V3 class. Their opposition is compromised mainly of Toyota GT86s.
Sören Herweg
