20. 2007 Nurburgring 24 Hours
This was THE race on the bucket list, DSC had covered it for years through the good offices of Johannes Gauglica and Soren Herweg and the combination of the location, the legendary Nordschliefe, the size (220 cars) and eclectic nature of the grid, and the fact that I’d been asked by Radio Le Mans to help provide the first live English language commentary that the event had ever had came together to create a real sense of anticipation.
There were though two downsides , the fact that we would have to be travelling post race directly to Le Mans, the two races ran back to back in ’07 and the weather, which played a key role at two points of the race.
The start was delayed after a heavy storm hit the track which saw torrents of water running off the surrounding woodland and over the track, standing water, mud and gravel. The race finally got underway, albeit behind the Safety Car, almost 2 hours late.
Klaus Ludwig’s Aston Martin DBRS9 hooned off into the lead but as the track dried the Aston stayed out and it cost them dearly – Into the lead went what was to become a very familiar car, the green and yellow Manthey Porsche.
Always in the hunt too was the venerable Zakspeed Viper, a previous race winner, the big V10 machine wasn’t ready to retire in glory just yet it was fending off the Alzen Bros fabulously aggressive looking Porsche Cayman.
The weather intervened again as night fell, the race red flagged for a full six hours as fog descended.
When the race restarted it was attrition that sorted the result, Manthey sailing through as others stumbled.
And the moment of the race? It was the weather, the rain at the start, the fog in the early hours, Radio Le Mans had not planned to broadcast for the full 24 Hours and we were actually woken up because of the silence outside the Dorint hotel!
Despite that, and the desperately tiring slog through the following Le Mans week this is an event that I adore, I haven’t missed it since!
21. 2007 Le Mans 24 Hours
Peugeot’s arrival was the big news for the year, with the entry expanded to 55 cars courtesy of a new row of 10 garages replacing the five temporary structures at the pit out end.
The 908s certainly looked the part, and featured a number of big names in their starting line-up but in truth they never looked like full race contenders against the bulkier looking, but ultimately quicker and more reliable R10s – It wouldn’t be altogether that simple though!
In truth I had a pretty miserable week, the rigours of the ‘Ring 24 had taken a toll and I arrived at a rainy Le Mans feeling tired and unwell. The weather through the week did little to lift my spirits! A fall down a flight of steps on race morning really didn’t help!
There was an early shocker for Audi as Mike Rockenfeller binned the #3 Audi at Tertre Rouge, the car comprehensively stuffed and Rocky looking like his world had caved in!
There was a further shock too as the #2 car, leading seemingly at a canter, lost a rear wheel and pitched poor DIndo Capello into the barriers. The popular Italian was fine, the R10 fundamentally not so! They were out.
It was left to the 2006 winning crew to bring it home with Biela, Pirro and Werner finally coming home 10 laps up on the least delayed 908.
LMP2 rapidly became a near farce of survival of the least unfit, Bill Binnie’s Zytek powered Lola prevailed, this despite a lengthy late race pit stop, but there were only a pair of class finishers.
Aston Martin finally triumphed in GT1 after another titanic scrap with the Corvettes, fifth overall for the #009 DBR9 of Brabham, Turner and Rydell was the first class win for the famous marque since their overall win in 1959.
Moment of the race though was Rollcentre’s stunning run to fourth (behind the similar Pescarolo factory car) Shorty and co’s customer Pescarolo Judd finally blew away the clouds for this writer, Joao Barbosa, Stuart Hall and Martin Short running fast and reliably as car after car stumbled. Shorty’s face in the closing minutes was a picture of torment!
22. 2007 Spa 24 Hours
Spa in 2007 saw another epic GT1 battle that looked, once again, to be heading the way of Vitaphone’s Maseratis.
Weather though again played a part and with Eric van de Poele at the wheel the conditions bit back – Eric into the gravel and falling behind a charging Marcel Fassler, this the race that this writer really developed a huge appreciation of the later to become World Champions raw talent
This was rainmeistery of an extreme degree and the words of his team-mate Mike Hezemans straight after the flag are worth repeating here:
“I must say that, for me, all the credit goes to Marcel Fässler. When it was raining we were sat in our motorhome and we said to Marcel: ‘Please keep going!’ He was so quick during the rain that we could hardly believe it. He spent a long time on track, and we have to thank him. For me it was nice to have the pole but all of the credit goes to him. He had to stay in and stay in and we were thinking ‘How long can he drive?’ Normally I’m quite good in the rain but Marcel was on another planet.”
The now ageing PK Carsport Corvette C5-R finished a fine third.
The ‘moment’ though was more than that for this writer, and whilst Fassler deserves all the plaudits above, my other major memory of this one surrounds the major changes made to the circuit that year, and in particular the brand new, indeed not really complete, media centre.
Put simply it is an awful place to cover a race from, the first of the new generation of F1 enforced and inspired sheds designed for a media audience blessed with wall to wall TV coverage, the only windows giving a distant view of Eau Rouge which, unfortunately, is the only fixed camera usually fed to the room when TV isn’t broadcasting!
Beyond that though we had repeated power failures, loose and missing fixtures and fittings , zero paddock lighting (for a 24 hour race!!) a second floor walkway that was incomplete and steps down to the paddock which lacked the final step – Thanks Bernie!
23. 2007 Britcar 24 Hours
Duller Motorsport was back with its BMW Z4 GT, the race winner last year and it was to prove a dominant package once again. Johannes Stuck replaced Tim Mullen from the 2006 winning squad but the BMW was in a class of its own taking the win by nearly 30 laps as others pushed hard to match the pace.
Actually faster at times was the hard charging Rollcentre Mosler, Stuart Hall in particular looking racy whilst Mark Sumpter and co’s blend of pace and reliability finally overhauled the very rapid Duller M3 that had a galaxy of stars aboard, including Spa 24 Hours winner Marcel Fassler.
There was a second 24 hour race this year suspended because of fog, this time though for under two hours.
Top Gear raced this year with a combination of professionalism and play acting, the publicity was nice to have at least!
Moment of the race though was an admission by Michael Mallock that he had somehow managed to activate ‘his’ #57 Team RJN Nissan 350Z’s central locking system as he got out of the car for refuelling! – Luckily there was an open side window and no coat hangers were required!
