Nürburgring 24 Hours Preview - Part 2
The Sp8 Class The Sp8 Class is the one where you can find the big engines, with a cylinder capacity between 4.0 and 6.2 litres. In total 17 cars will start in Sp8 and Sp8T. Last year Farnbacher Racing were a surprise second place finisher of the 24 Hours Nürburgring. They were fastest in the night qualifying, only to have a big accident during the second qualifying session, resulting in a starting spot outside the top 25. Then there was their pre-race drama, when one of the fans stole their diffuser, only to be caught by a security guard who returned the piece to the team. This year the team of Horst Farnbacher won the third VLN race with their Ferrari F458 GT2, so have had optimal prep for the attack on the 24 Hours. Jamie Melo is replacing Leh Keen, who is on Grand-Am duty, with the rest of the driver line up being the same as last year: Marco Seefried, Allan Simonsen and Dominik Farnbacher. Aston Martin has used the Nordschleife for years to test their cars before a release to their customers, and this year two of the beautiful Aston Martin V12 Zagatos will attack the race. In their lead car company CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez will share duties with Wolfgang Schuhbauer, Horst von Saurma and Matthew Marsh. Christopher Porritt, Richard Meaden, Peter Care and Oliver Mathai will share the other one. Another Sp8-Aston is the one of the AVIA Racing Team, with Mola Adebisi, Michael Podlogar, Oliver Louisoder and Jörg Bratke. Since 2008 the sweet sounding Lexus LF-A has been a treat to every fan around the Nordschleife and after last year’s class wins the two coupes are back for another attack. Newly crowned Le Mans Winner Andre Lotterer will share a car with Juichi Wakisaka and Takayuki Kinoshita. The other LF-A is driven by Akira Ida, Hiroaki Ishuira plus Kazuya Oshima. Gazoo Racing is also fielding an Lexus ISF Hybrid for Akira Ida and Minoru Takaki. RJN Motorsport will be fielding a Nissan 370 Z for Michael Krumm, Sabine Schmidt, Holger Eckhardt and Tetsuya Tanaka. The Corvette C6 GT4 of Tobias Guttroff and Yannick Fübrich is also starting in the Sp8. The newly developed Hyundai Genesis Coupe is driven by Jürgen and Peter Schumann, Alexander Köppen and Georg Berlandy. After a year’s absence Mal Rose and his Holden Commodore is back in the field, driven by the boss himself, Peter Leemhuis, Anthony Alford and Damien Flack. The turbo divison of the Sp8 class has the big underdog in it, the Volkswagen Golf GT24, celebrating 35 years of Golf GTI. The turbo powered four wheel drive is the car which a lot of teams are fearing when it comes to top positions. Rene Rast, Peter Terting, Nicki Thiim and Edoardo Mortara are the youngest and maybe the fastest of the Golf drivers, but it has to be seen if the youngsters can finish the race mistake-free. The car of Fredrik Ekblom, Thomas Mutsch, Patrick Simon and Franck Mailleux is probably the one with the best balance of speed and experience, so it should be the one being able to score a very good finish. In the final car former F1 drivers Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell will share driving duties with Edoardo Mortara and Franck Mailleux. Other cars in the Turbo division are two Audi RS4 and a Nissan GT-R. Sören Herweg | 
