A truly satisfying Nurbugring 24 Hours this year, with no less than five GT3 manufacturers, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, Aston Martin and BMW, represented in the overall top six finishers, and some very close racing at the front of the field for many hours into the event.
A new distance record of 159 laps for the top two cars thanks to almost completely dry running for the whole race, extremely fast pace at times and relatively few serious incidents – the ones that did happen, happened early on.
A maiden N24 win for Rene Rast and Christian Mamerow in the #4 Phoenix Audi, and a second win for their co-drivers Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock, who were among the Audi squad that triumphed here in 2012. This was also Audi’s second-ever N24 win – and its second 24-hour victory in a week following the R18’s Le Mans triumph last weekend – what price a 2014 hat-trick at Spa next month?
Dropping to fourth at the start having qualified third, the #4 kept its nose clean in the chaotic early hours (which included a big off for Marc Basseng in the sister #3 R8). It was promoted to third when #19 Schubert BMW crashed, then began disputing the lead with the #14 Black Falcon Mercedes when the #66 McLaren’s short stints saw it lose touch with the front of the field. The #26 Marc VDS BMW joined the fray around the sixth hour before a Karrussel crash eliminated it, and as the dawn approached, the #4 gained some breathing room that it very gradually extended as the final hours counted down.
A very solid showing from last year’s winner Mercedes, taking second and third with typically relentless performances from the #1 Black Falcon and #22 Rowe Racing cars. The #1 Mercedes ran fourth early on, but its sister #14 SLS was initially the quicker car in the hands of Yelmer Buurman and Adam Christodolou. It dropped back from the top three when Al-Faisal and Haupt were at the wheel, before a late-night clash with an Aston Martin left it with terminal rear-end damage. By this time, the #1 had established itself as a front-runner and wouldn’t be out of the top three for the rest of the race. Jeroen Bleekemolen makes his second consecutive appearance on the N24 podium following his win last year.
The #22 Mercedes was battling for third early on (and even led very briefly), before being passed by the charging #26 BMW and losing some ground to a penalty for a yellow-flag violation. But the #20 BMW’s late-race troubles played into the hands of the persistent crew of Michael Zehe, Christian Hohenadel, Nico Bastian and Maro Engel, and they moved into a podium position on Sunday lunchtime.
Reduced commitment from Porsche due to its extensive TUSCC and WEC programmes meant the familiar WochenSpiegel Team Manthey 911s woudn’t be in contention for overall victory this year – no big-name factory drivers were to be seen across the two-car squad’s driver line-up in the SP9 GT3 class. It was left to the stalwart #44 Team Falken Porsche of Peter Dumbreck, Martin Ragginger, Wolf Henzler and Alexandre Imperatori to fly the flag for Stuttgart, and a decent job they did, too, with an ultra-consistent and clean run that saw them keep out of trouble, profit from some retirements and finish just off the podium in fourth place.
Disappointment for BMW, which still hasn’t managed to win the N24 in the GT3 era – its last success coming with the M3 GTR in 2010. Heartbreak especially for Marc VDS Racing, after another 24-hour race where its cars looked very racy early on, then hit trouble after dark. Both the #25 and #26 Z4s suffered terminal damage after coming together with other cars, the #26 already having dropped out of contention due to a throttle problem.
The #20 Schubert BMW was spun around by the #26 Marc VDS Z4 early on. The sister #19 car initially looked to be the team’s best hope, leading in the initial stages, but a crash at Bitburger in the fourth hour left it limping back to the pits and eventual retirement. This put the #20 crew in the hot seat for much of the second half of the race, looking like an outside bet for the win at one point. But a penalty for avoidable contact with a Porsche Cayman while Tomczyk was driving and time spent in the garage after Huertgen damaged the suspension over the kerbs on Sunday morning saw it slip to sixth at the flag – just missing out on fifth after a hair-raising battle with the Aston Martin in the last couple of laps.
Frustration, too, for that Aston Martin – a simple faulty valve saw the crew lose many valuable seconds every time the #007 Vantage stopped early in the race. Messrs. Turner, Mucke and Lamy spent the rest of the event proving they had the pace to challenge the leaders, and helped by a bit of attrition, they eventually came home a creditable fifth overall after the thrilling late-race battle with the #20.
Elsewhere, there was an overall top-10 finish for Red Bull’s skydiving star Felix Baumgartner – which was due in no small part due to the performances of his experienced Audi Race Experience team-mates Frank Biela, Marco Werner and Pierre Kaffer.
Difficult races for McLaren and Nissan: the MP4-12Cs, represented here by Dorr Motorsport, were blindingly quick in qualifying and early in the race – but poor fuel economy and eventually terminal technical issues (plus a late night tangle with a Nissan) put paid to any chance of victory. Bob Neville’s NISMO GT-Rs also had a tough time of it – the #30 eliminated by a front-end shunt during the night and the #80 having to constantly recover from a series of setbacks, eventually finishing 28th overall.
