DSC’s reporting team is back (and at least partially rested) after a whirlwind weekend in Germany which left so many questions unanswered and storylines to unpick after the shortest Nürburgring 24 Hours on record.
The 2024 running of Germany’s great endurance race was both remarkable and frustrating in equal measure. It featured under nine hours of racing completed due to fog and a result that remains provisional due to an appeal to a protest from ROWE, which believes its #98 M4 GT3 won because the end of the race was mismanaged.
It’s a race that is going to be revisited and relitigated for a while yet behind closed doors before we know for certain which team was actually victorious. For that reason alone, it will surely live long in the memory.
However, until we know more, the performance and (provisional) achievement of Scherer Sport PHX – which fought its way to the front before the race was stopped just before midnight with its #16 R8 LMS GT3 EVO II – should be recognised.
Scherer Sport PHX (formerly Phoenix Racing), was quick and impressed all week. The win is another landmark result for a team that has found a way to stay competitive and collect trophies since the turn of the century, through multiple eras of racing on the Nordschleife. A (Manthey-tying) record seventh overall victory at the N24 places it firmly in the pantheon of all-time great GT teams.
Its long association with Audi should be celebrated too. Team owner Christian Scherer told DSC ahead of the race that it is currently exploring a switch of brands due to the gradual reduction in factory support from Audi Sport Customer Racing. If this is indeed the last season for the Audi-Phoenix combination, then it’s a partnership that will come to an end on the highest of notes.
As for the winning drivers, the result also produced some significant career milestones. It was a first win for Ricardo Feller – who due to the length of the red flag only drove the winning car under the safety car – and Dennis Marshall.
Meanwhile, for Frank Stippler and Chris Mies, it’s win number three. Stippler – who won this race previously back in 2012 and 2019 – drove his heart out in the early portion of the race and was the most emotional in the post-race presser.
It’s more or less like a dream
“It was maybe or most likely the last chance to win the 24 hours on the Nürburgring with an Audi,” Stippler said. “Because the Audi is disappearing from GT racing, as well as I’m getting older, I’m 49 years old.
“I don’t know how many chances there might be in future. So to achieve this, in the last year with Audi after 21 years now and 16 years with Phoenix, and I don’t know, couldn’t be much better. And it’s more or less like a dream.
“All the three victories I achieved here are very emotional, very special. And I’m more than speechless.”
For Audi Sport, which is winding down its factory support in customer racing after more than a decade of success, this victory adds to its impressive record.
It was overall win number seven for the ‘Four Rings’ at the N24 and yet another major race win for the R8 platform, which lest we forget has also racked up notable victories at the Rolex 24 Hours, Dubai 24 Hours, Bathurst 12 Hour and Spa 24 Hours during its time as the flagship model.
The R8 may be one of the older and more cost-effective GT3 cars on the market, but in an era where brand-new GT3 cars are becoming significantly more expensive and technically impressive by the year, it continues to find success in major championships globally.
“The feeling is relief,” Audi Sport Customer Racing boss Chris Reinke told DSC after the race. “It was an intense start to the race, we know where our strengths and weaknesses may be. We had in-depth experience within the team, a very strong driver line-up and commitment from the team.
“We played that strongly until the red flag. We were a bit worried a shorter restart period would come, and it would have been harder against the turbo cars. So it was an unexpected finish but a well-deserved lead that got us the trophy in the end.”
When all is said and done, will this victory be looked back on as a ‘last hurrah’ of sorts for the R8 GT3 programme? Reinke, who has fought admirably over the past year during the current transitional phase for the brand’s sporting departments for Audi Sport Customer Racing to live on, certainly doesn’t subscribe to that narrative.
We have the possibility to ride on via our customers
“For the moment we are happy, we have a story of success, and we have the possibility to ride on via our customers. Customer racing is first customers, then racing. And we proved in Dubai with a win there, and a podium at Bathurst and now we come to the Nürburgring and can extend our record for the R8 here now.
“It proves that the concept can work as it is and we are proud and happy that we can continue.
“If you look at results around the world we are also leading the DTM Championship, we are the manufacturer to be beaten here, so yet again we have momentum with this car.
“For the moment we celebrate and then we think of everything else the day after.”
The final element of the Scherer Sport PHX story is that of Michelin. The N24 may be an Intercontinental GT Challenge round now, but it has not become an all-Pirelli show and has retained its open-tyre ethos.
Michelin had a tough time last year at the ‘Ring. Tyre issues plagued multiple cars, most notably the Manthey Porsche 911 which was a pre-race favourite and was retired mid-race according to Porsche for ‘safety reasons’ after several punctures.
This year it was a different story. It returned with an impressive fleet of 18 cars in SP9 and swept the provisional podium.
“This win didn’t come from nothing,” Pierre Alves, Michelin’s sportscar operations manager told DSC during the post-race celebrations. “Last year we experienced a lot of issues and based on the sporting regulations we are not allowed to keep developing tyres.
“We did four seasons with the same spec of tyres and last year we experienced issues with cars so we asked the organisers to bring a new type of tyre that was stronger and solved the safety issue.
“We came with a range that works well on all cars and equipped eight car manufacturers. During the weekend we had mixed conditions and we saw that with different conditions we always had the right solution.
“It’s nice to come here and compete. The track itself is different from all the others, and to have open competition makes sense, it’s the best way to prove what we are doing. To be allowed to work with so many manufacturers on this race track is a privilege.”
Images courtesy of Frozenspeed
