Nurburgring 24 Hours – Into The Evening
© Johannes Gauglica As of lap 5, it was all about Porsches, with Alzen in the Cayman (the car Porsche does not want to be raced), leading the 996 of Basseng, and Bernhard in the 997 – until Bernhard made the pass, and then recorded a 9:00 lap. Lechner in the Aston found himself in sixth place after his pit stop. Timo Bernhard was again the challenger as he chased the Cayman with Uwe Alzen on board. He finally made it by the Cayman at the end of lap 11, and Alzen dived into the pits immediately thereafter, the end of its first, and possibly not final, fifteen minutes of fame. Since then, Manthey Racing has been doing the lead work, the 2006 winning team has established itself nicely at the head of the field, with the Porsche factory boys putting in some very quick laps. As usual, it seemed to be a theme to this race that the leaders were on different pit strategies, and a pit stop inevitably meant the loss of several positions. Through it all, the Zakspeed Viper, a crusty veteran of many 24 hour races on the ‘Ring, kept making progress and homing in on the sharp end of the top 5. Manthey retained the lead through the next driver change as Marc Lieb got behind the wheel. The lap times continued to drop and approach the 8:50 mark. At 20.00 hours, or 3 hours and 9 minutes, Lieb continued to lead, with the Viper now back up into second place – an amazing performance for what effectively is an eight year old car. Also slowly moving up the order is the Aston, Klaus Ludwig admitting to having stayed out too long during his opening stint; it lost the team a fair amount of time but that’s all but made up now. Positions Just Past 3 Hours
1 1 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Bernhard Timo , Lieb Marc , Dumas Romain , Tiemann Marcel 20 3:09:54.633
2 3 Dodge Viper GTS-R Huisman Duncan , Coronel Tom , Simon Patrick , Bouchout Christophe 20 3:11:52.483 1:57.850
3 25 Porsche GT3 RSR Basseng Marc , Hennerici Marc , Adorf Dirk , Stippler Frank 20 3:12:05.587 2:10.954
4 7 Aston Martin DBRS 9/8 Ludwig Klaus , Fässler Marcel , Bert Sascha , Lechner Robert 20 3:12:37.358 2:42.725
5 2 Porsche Cayman Alzen Jürgen , Alzen Uwe , Menzel Christian , Mamerow Chris 20 3:13:04.865 3:10.232
6 50 BMW Z4 M-Coupe Hürtgen Claudia , Stuck Hans Joachim , Stuck Johannes , Göransson Richard 19 3:08:34.041 1 Runde
7 14 Porsche 911 GT3 Schmitz Sabine , Abbelen Klaus , Althoff Edgar 19 3:09:20.412 1 Runde
8 10 BMW M3 E46 GTS Scheid Johannes , Kainz Oliver , Horn David , Teich Matthias 19 3:09:57.381 1 Runde
9 29 Porsche 997 RSR Frers Klaus , Bernhardt Patrik , Kaffer Pierre , Hardt Jörg 19 3:10:41.522 1 Runde
10 30 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Bermes Heinz-Josef , Krumbach Jochen , Schrey Michael , Bergmeister Tim 19 3:13:17.865 1 Runde |
