The result of this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours has been made final, as ROWE Racing’s protest and appeal have been dismissed by the DMSB.
Scherer Sport PHX’s #16 Audi shared by Ricardo Feller, Dennis Marschall, Frank Stippler and Christopher Mies, which took the chequered flag first, is therefore confirmed as the winner, while Manthey EMA’s Porsche featuring Laurens Vanthoor, Ayhancan Güven, Thomas Preining and Kevin Estre was the best placed Intercontinental GT Challenge entry in second overall.
ROWE Racing’s protest was against the the way in which Race Control managed the end race,.
The race was called with over an hour remaining after a lengthy red flag for fog and five safety car laps, but ROWE believed the race should have been “interrupted” a second time, rather than finished because Art 36.1 of the Supplementary Regulations specifically defines that “at the end of 24 hours, the chequered flag will be shown”.
Had the race been declared “interrupted”, then article 35.3 of the N24 Supplementary Regulations would have come into play.
That regulation states that “the minimum pit stop times applicable at the time of the classification (including any time penalties and Stop-and-Go time penalty) will subsequently be added to the vehicles’ total driving time in the form of a penalty.”
Crucially, the #98 ROWE BMW (which finished seventh) was one of a handful of cars that pitted during the safety car laps at the end of the race. Therefore, had the above time penalties been applied would have seen the #98 rise up the order, into the lead.
However, after a meeting earlier this week, the DMSB Court of Appeal dismissed ROWE’s argument. Scherer Sport PHX has therefore been declared the winner.
“At its meeting on 10 July, the DMSB Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal lodged by the ROWE Racing team against the classification of the 24h Nürburgring,” the statement issued by the event yesterday reads.
“The court, presided over by Rainer Wicke, explained orally that the race had ended correctly with the black and white chequered flag. As the race director is fundamentally responsible for preventing damage to participants and others involved in the event and Walter Hornung is regarded as one of the leading motorsport experts in the field of safety, particularly on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, he had been able to end the race in this way after 50 laps within the scope of his expertise.
“In addition, calculations by the organiser had shown that even if the red flag had been used on the 50th lap, the result would not have been any different, as the 48th lap of the race would then have been used as the basis for the calculation. The 51st lap mentioned by the appellant is regarded as a run-out lap and would therefore not have been suitable as a basis for a result.”
N24 race director Walter Hornung added that he is pleased the result is now final and felt that fans and teams would have “understood” a change to the result weeks after the event’s conclusion.
“I am glad that the decision of the race organisers to finish the 24h Nürburgring at the beginning of June early, but under safe conditions, has now also been confirmed in the second instance.
“Unfortunately, the extreme weather conditions with hours of dense fog forced us to do so. Neither participants nor fans would have understood a reversal of the race result several weeks after the event.”
As this year’s N24 acted as a round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge series, this news confirms the points standings ahead of the Indianapolis 8 Hour.
Half points are awarded at events where less than 75% of the original race time is completed. Vanthoor, Güven, Preining and Estre therefore scored the ‘maximum’ 12.5 points instead of 25, while BMW’s Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Charles Weerts (BMW) collected nine for finishing second in Intercontinental’s classification. Mercedes-AMG completed the podium courtesy of Daniel Juncadella, Maximilian Goetz and Luca Stolz.
The rest of the classification, as well as that of the subsequent CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, leave Vanthoor and Güven just half a point ahead of factory Porsche colleague Matt Campbell with only the Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS remaining.
BMW also has two sets of contenders in play: Weerts is 3.5 points off top spot, while Harper and Hesse sit seven further back. Luca Stolz is Mercedes-AMG’s best bet, 12 points adrift of Vanthoor and Güven.
All three registered marques can still claim the manufacturers’ crown, covered as they are by 20 points with a maximum of 43 still available for victory and second place at Indy on October 4-6.
And in the Independent Cup, Antares Au leads Prince Jefri Ibrahim by 12.5 points. Both have already dropped a score, at Bathurst and Nürburgring, respectively.
