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Scherer Sport PHX Audi Wins Red Flag-Shortened N24

An emotional win for Scherer Sport and Audi, after thick fog overnight stopped the 52nd running for more than 12 hours

The #16 Scherer Sport PHX R8 LMS GT3 EVO II of Christopher Mies, Frank Stippler, Dennis Marschall, and Ricardo Feller has taken victory for Audi in the 52nd running of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, after fog forced race control to stop the race before midnight on Saturday.

This is the seventh win for Scherer Sport PHX [formerly Phoenix Racing], tying the all-time team record for wins at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, alongside Manthey Racing, and a seventh win for Audi.

The race briefly resumed under Safety Car on Sunday afternoon after 14 hours and six minutes of red flag interruption. However, the conditions proved too severe, and the race was declared with over an hour to go after five exploratory laps behind the safety car.

The #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi was the class of the field on the run into the night, taking the lead in a battle with the #72 BMW M Team RMG M4 in the eighth hour of running.

Unfortunately, a thick blanket of fog came in over the GP Strecke, forcing the red flags to make an appearance at 23:24 local time, with over 16 and a half hours remaining. The fog persisted through the night and into the morning and ultimately prevented a full restart of the race.

The #911 Manthey EMA Porsche was eventually classified second, ahead of the #72 BMW M Team RMG, after a position change made after the red flag to due the pit stop regulations.

According to Article 35.1 of the Supplementary Regulations: “The minimum pit stop times applicable at the time of the classification (including any time penalties) will subsequently be added to the vehicles’ total driving time (of the interrupted race section, for the determination of the starting grid for the resumption) in the form of a time grid penalty.”

In practice, when the red flag was called, the minimum pit stop time for the current stint was added to each car’s classified time. As the Manthey Porsche was out-of-sequence due to a shorter stint on slick tyres in the rain, a pit stop time of 116 seconds was added to the Porsche’s classification.

The #72 BMW meanwhile, had just entered the pit lane at the call of the red flag, and with the countback to the previous completed lap, had effectively a full stint’s worth of minimum pit stop time added to its classification: 176 seconds.

As the gap between the #72 and #911 was only 30 seconds at the fall of the red flag, 60-second difference in pit stop time was enough for the #911 to jump the #72 once the minimum pit stop time had been added.

The top five was rounded out by the #4 Mercedes Team HRT and the #27 Red Bull Team Abt Lamborghini.

After a flurry of stops during the safety car laps at the end, the #33 Falken Porsche rose to sixth, after the 2023 N24-winning Frikadelli Ferrari opted to pit as a final roll of the dice and dropped to 12th.

At only 50 total laps and seven hours and 24 minutes of race running, the 2024 edition of the 24 Hours of Nurburgring is the shortest edition of the race, running shorter than the 2021 edition that was Red Flagged for heavy rain and fog overnight, with 59 laps completed on that occasion.

It was a huge shame for the crowd of over 240,000 spectators trackside that the race didn’t resume. This was a result that left everyone up and down the pitlane with so many unanswered questions.

The action was building nicely at nightfall, with Audi, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari and Lamborghini all showing pace in different conditions and still clearly in the mix. The race truly felt like it could have gone in multiple directions, with the top six cars within two minutes of the leader, and a variety of different tyre, driver, and pit stop strategies playing out in the changing conditions.

While Audi took the race win, as it is not an IGTC entrant, half the winning IGTC points (due to the shortened race) will go to the #911 Manthey EMA Porsche. The last time an IGTC event was won overall by a non-IGTC entrant was the 2018 24 Hours of Spa. On that occasion, a (Walkenhorst) BMW that won overall, and a (Santeloc Racing) Audi that took top IGTC points.

Prior to the red flag interruption, the race had just begun to settle into a rhythm, with the #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi and the #72 BMW M Team RMG cars battling for the lead as the circuit was plunged into darkness.

It was Christopher Mies in the #16 Audi that held the ascendancy as the race was halted, with Daniel Harper having just entered the pit lane from second. The pair had a back-and-forth battle for the entirety of the previous hour after they both passed Arjun Maini in the #3 Bilstein Mercedes AMG that led at the time.

“The fight with the Audi was fun,” said Harper upon getting out of the car. “I was on cut slicks at the beginning but the track was too dry at the end, I think it was the Audi on slicks.

“He was a bit faster, but I was able to keep up with him because of the traffic. It was a nice fight.”

Their battle followed a complex build-up to the race, which was held with a constant threat of rain, in overcast and misty conditions.

The first rain of the day occurred just at the start of the formation lap, with some teams changing to wets on the grid while others, like the pole-sitting #72 BMW M Team RMG, elected to jump into the pits at the end of the formation lap to change to wet tyres.

While there was only drizzle on the early part of the lap, heavier rain from Adenauer Forst onwards dictated the use of wet tyres. Maro Engel in the #130 GetSpeed Mercedes, on slick tyres, took the lead of the race at the Goodyear hairpin on the GP Strecke, but finished the opening lap outside the top 20, before pitting for wets.

It was the #911 ‘Grello’ Manthey EMA Porsche that led the early running, with Kevin Estre leading Augusto Farfus in the #99 ROWE BMW through the first stint. However, as the rain eased and a dry line formed, the Porsche began to lose pace relative to those who moved to cut slick and full slick tyres.

By the time Estre brought the #911 in for their first pit stop, much later than other teams who started on wets, the track was fully dry, and the Porsche emerged from the pits down in seventh place.

This allowed the #99 ROWE Racing BMW to take control of the field, with Sheldon van der Linde holding a slim five-second lead at the turn of the third hour.

Unfortunately, van der Linde was involved in a huge multi-car incident in Fuchsrohre that eliminated the #99, along with the #420 Four Motors Bioconcept Porsche 718 Cayman and the #507 Giti Tyre Motorsport by WS Racing BMW in the VT2 Hecka class.

The incident occurred as Van der Linde was attempting to lap the #420 Porsche Cayman, just as Alesia Kreutzpointer was looking to pass the #507 BMW with Fabian Pirrone at the wheel at Fuchsrohre.

Onboard from the #99 ROWE BMW indicated that the Porsche made contact with the left rear of the GT3 BMW, which pitched van der Linde into the side of the #507 BMW.

Amateur footage since has surfaced showing the #507 BMW hitting the barriers hard and completing two full barrel-rolls in the air, before landing upright in the guardrails on driver’s left. Miraculously, all three drivers were able to exit their cars without assistance.

“I’m fine for now, but my heart hurts today,” van der Linde said. “We had a really good car and were leading the whole time. I was extremely careful in traffic the whole time, just so that something like that wouldn’t happen.

“I looked at it again, I really couldn’t do anything about it. I think the driver didn’t see me at that moment, that’s what she told me. But of course, it’s extremely disappointing for us It’s going so well that it’s extremely annoying.

“We had exactly the same thing with Lello on Thursday and now we’ve been on the podium again and very close to it in the last few years and now we’ve had a good year again.

“That’s extremely annoying for me. But I understand that such mistakes can happen to anyone, but I’m extremely disappointed. That’s nice, of course, but it also saves our race. I’m now supporting my brother at ABT and our 98 and 72.”

The #99 ROWE Racing BMW wasn’t the only overall contender to run into significant problems early in the race. In SP9 Pro, a further three cars encountered race-ending issues, while the #5 Herberth Porsche suffered lost a lap after a scary incident.

The Herberth Porsche was the unlucky victim of a four-wide moment at Antoniusbuche, right at the end of the Dottinger Hohe.

With the Frikadelli Ferrari on the far right of the track, the #15 Scherer Sport PHX Audi, the #130 GetSpeed Mercedes and the #5 Herberth Porsche all tried to slipstream passed it, and each other.

Ultimately, four into one didn’t go; the #15 Audi and #130 Mercedes made light contact, which moved the #130 Mercedes into the #5 Porsche at the fastest part of the circuit, pitching Vincent Kolb into a scary spin at over 280km/h.

Luckily, the Porsche made only light contact with the barrier, and Kolb was able to get the car to the pits without further incident. Despite falling a lap down, the #5 has been fast in the hands of Olsen and Campbell, and was clawing back some of the deficit before the red flag.

The #130 GetSpeed Mercedes wasn’t as lucky – a puncture on the right front due to the contact ended up causing more damage underneath the car, and the Mercedes had spent a significant amount of time in the pits making repairs, dropping the car down to 22nd in class and 97th overall.

Also eliminated from contention was the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin, which enjoyed a strong start to the race on the Michelin ‘Drying Wet’ tyre, with David Pittard jumping from 19th into the top 10 on the early part of the Nordschleife.

Unfortunately, contact on the first lap with another car at Adenauer Forst and an associated puncture caused significant damage to the Aston Martin, which was later retired.

“Our 24-hour race lasted about 2 minutes – it ended, competitively at least, at Adenauer Forst,” Pittard said while on the English commentary. “We started P19, and I was overtaking for fourth, and I got driven into.

“The #8 Mercedes, I’ll call them out now, they were racing like it was the last lap of the 24 hours like it was Lap 1.

“I’m very disappointed in the respect that particular professional driver had… I know he was on slick tyres but trying to outbrake someone on wet tyres on a wet track, there’s only going to be one result.

“Unfortunately our race is ruined as a result of it. I’m very upset.”

The #8 GetSpeed Mercedes retired too, after contact with the wall in Metzgesfeld in the darkness caused significant damage to the car. Adam Christodoulou was able to return that car to the pits, where it stayed until the fall of the red flag.

Christodoulou’s moment came just after a period of complex weather conditions, with light rain slowly moving across the track, starting from the Karussell at about 20:20 local time, before engulfing the majority of the circuit.

It took another 20 minutes before conditions dictated wets, with the #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi one of the first to make the jump. The move to wets was followed by most of the leading group at around 19 hours remaining in the race, however, the #72 BMW M Team RMG of Charlie Weerts took cut slicks, while the #911 Manthey EMA Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor, in the effective lead of the race, stayed on slick tyres.

This decision proved to be decisive, with the rain settling in over most of the track – from Bergwerk to the GP Strecke – giving those who decided to go to wet tyres a significant advantage, to the tune of almost 20 seconds a lap.

The #911 Porsche dropped like a stone, exiting the pits in third place and dropping down to eighth before cutting its stint short to four laps to get onto wets.

Meanwhile, Daniel Juncadella in the #4 Mercedes Team HRT AMG made substantial progress in the wet. At times he was 20 seconds a lap faster than anyone else on the circuit, reeling in the leading group as he fought from sixth up into second during his stint, passing Vanthoor, Weerts, Kelvin van der Linde in the #27 Red Bull Team Abt Lamborghini, and the #3 Bilstein Mercedes AMG in the process.

After the shower at sunset, the track began to slowly dry, with the appearance of a dry line by 23:00 local time. But with fog setting in over the GP Strecke the race was brought to a halt, with the poor visibility persisting through the night, the morning and into the early afternoon.

At that point, the #16 Audi held the lead, with the #72 BMW second and the #911 back up to third after cutting a stint short to switch back to wets.

This order would then change when the safety car restart occurred at 13:30. Kevin Estre slotted in second overall behind the #16 Audi and ahead of the #72 due to rules applied to factor in uneven pit stop times before the red flag.

Images courtesy of Frozenspeed & SRO

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