The #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi of Frank Stippler leads the way into the darkness at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, after controlling the middle period of the race in difficult conditions.
The Scherer Sport PHX team made the right call on tyres as rain set in across the circuit, protecting its effective lead as other cars gambled by waiting and monitoring the conditions.
Second at the moment is the #911 Manthey EMA Porsche, with Ayhancan Guven at the wheel, followed by the #98 ROWE Racing BMW of Augusto Farfus.
There had just been a set of pit stops, which has seen the #27 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini and the #72 BMW M Team RMG drop down the order, as they pitted just before the six hour mark from first and second respectively. They returned to the circuit in sixth and eighth respectively.
Sitting in fourth and fifth are a pair of Mercedes AMGs – the #4 Mercedes Team HRT with Daniel Juncadella at the wheel, and the #8 GetSpeed with Adam Christodoulou driving – while the Bilstein Mercedes with Maini at the wheel sits in seventh.
The top 10 is rounded out by the #44 Falken Porsche, and the #1 Frikadelli Racing Ferrari, which have struggled to keep in touch with the leaders through the changeable conditions.
The major incident of the last three hours was the elimination of the #99 ROWE Racing BMW, which was leading at the time, in a scary moment through Fuchsrohre.
Early in Hour 4 Sheldon van der Linde went around the outside of the #420 Porsche Cayman just as the #420 went to lap the #507 BMW 1er Reine at the bottom of the sequence. The onboard view from the #99 BMW indicated that the Cayman made contact with the inside rear of the #99, which speared it across the track into the #507.
All three cars made heavy impact with the Armco, with the #507 coming off worst, completing a full barrel roll in the air before landing on all four wheels and in the barriers on driver’s left.
Luckily, all three drivers walked away, but all three cars were eliminated on the spot. This brought out a code 60 for recovery and barrier repairs that lasted 90 minutes.
Game over for the race leader!#IGTC | #24hNBR pic.twitter.com/sOsgFVjYpG
— Intercontinental GT Challenge (@IntercontGTC) June 1, 2024
“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 personally. 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 conditions in the last three hours have been very complicated, with a significant rain shower moving across the Nordschleife, starting at the northeast end of the circuit near the Karussell at about 20:20 local time, before setting in over the rest of the circuit.
It took about another 20 minutes before conditions dictated wets, with the #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi one of the first onto wets.
Of the leading group, most switched to wets with around 19 hours remaining. However, the #72 BMW M Team RMG of Charles Weerts took cut slicks and the effective race leader, the #911 Manthey Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor, stayed on standard slicks.
This decision proved to be decisive, with the rain settling in over most of the track – from Bergwerk all the way 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, great gains were made by Daniel Juncadella in the #4 Mercedes Team HRT AMG, who at one point was 20 seconds a lap faster than anyone else on the circuit, reeling in Vanthoor, Weerts in the #72 BMW, and Kelvin van der Linde in the #27 Red Bull Team ABT Lamborghini.
In all, Juncadella jumped from sixth to third in his stint, and that car now sits in third place.
As the darkness has set in, the rain has eased, with only the run from the Karussell to the GP Strecke still damp. The rest of the track has a clear dry line, and teams are moving back to cut slick and slick tyres.
Prior to the rain, there was an awkward moment for Laurens Vanthoor while leading in the #911 Manthey Porsche. Coming through a Slow Zone in Pfanzgarten, Vanthoor seemed to accidentally pass a very slow-moving Audi TT before the marshal post showed a green flag.
Vanthoor realised his mistake and slammed on the anchors, allowing the Audi back through. The incident was investigated, and it has just been announced that there will be no further action.
Beyond the #99 ROWE Racing BMW, of the overall contenders both the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin and the #130 GetSpeed Mercedes have spent significant time in the garage.
David Pittard, speaking on commentary, said that he was rear-ended on the first lap by the #8 Mercedes at Adenauer Forst on the first lap, and despite that car getting back out on track for a while, the #34 Walkenhorst Aston has spent the majority of the race in the pits.
The #130 GetSpeed Mercedes was the biggest loser of a four-wide moment at Antoniusbuche earlier in the race, with the damage caused by a puncture as a result of contact causing further repairs required for the car.
In general, getting a clean lap has been an impossibility. A number of code 60 interruptions have interrupted the flow of the race as the conditions worsened, the sun set and mistakes started creeping in in greater numbers.
Further down the order, at quarter distance some intriguing storylines are developing in the other classes.
The V5 class-leading #446 Porsche Cayman found the wall at the Stefan Bellof S with 4 hours completed, requiring recovery under code 60. Just before the turn of the hour, a dramatic fireball caused by the #510 Dupre Motorsport Audi at Brunnchen, has once again interrupted running as fire marshals worked to save the stricken Audi.
The car was shown pulling to the inside of the circuit, dripping fluid and popping flame out of the exhaust, before a fireball engulfed the rear of the car, forcing the driver Christoph Dupre from the car.
The Cup 2 class for Porsche Cup cars is headed by Black Falcon’s #103 911, which holds a comfortable advantage over the #121 Porsche of Kramer Racing. The #116 Scherer Sport PHX entry is third.
In SP10 for GT4 cars the #188 BMW M4 GT4 from FK Performance Motorsport leads the way by around 38 seconds over the #111 Schnitzelalm Racing Mercedes AMG GT4.
And in SP3T, the category featuring the fan favourite Dacia Logan, the leading car is the #317 Bulldog Racing Mini Cooper.
The Logan meanwhile, is still going strong, running in 109th overall (and last in class).
Rain has once again started falling in the darkness as the race heads towards midnight.
Images courtesy of SRO & Frozenspeed
