Nürburgring 24 Hours Preview - Part 4
The E1-XP (Experimental) Class Plus The Specials

In the final part of the preview, we will cover the experimental class plus the special cars taking part that we haven’t mentioned yet.

Last year, theirs weren’t the fastest cars but they won the race, in part due to a mistake-free run and a superb driving job by their drivers - we are, of course, talking about BMW Motorsport.

The driver line-ups haven’t changed since last year, so carrying the number 1 this year, will be Jörg Müller, Augusto Farfus, Uwe Alzen and Pedro Lamy. The other car will see the three Dirks - Werner, Müller and Adorf - plus Andy “Dirk” Priaulx. This year they won one race and finished on the podium in the other two races that they took part in, and in private testing it was proven that the BMW M3 GT2s have taken a big step forward; so this year they won’t be the underdogs but more the favourites for the 24 Hours.

The Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid of course has to be counted as a favourite, as it won a VLN round this year and also led the 24 Hours last year for a good chunk of the race.

With Martin Ragginger leaving for the Falken Porsche 911 GT3 R, Patrick Long will be the new driver aboard the Hybrid. The American has made quite an impression this season, getting well acclimatised to the Nordschleife in just three races. He and his colleagues Marco Holzer, Richard Lietz and Jörg Bergmeister should have a very good chance at an overall victory.

 The one-off P4/5 Competizione will be tackling the Green Hell in the hope of a good result for Scuderia Cameroan Glickenhaus.

Mika Salo, Nicola Larini, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Luca Capellari will drive the car, which is based on a Ferrari F430 Scuderia.

And now off to the special cars in the race. The Sp10 class, which is for GT4 cars, is packed with top notch drivers and cars. Aston Martin works driver Darren Turner will share a Vantage N24 with Shinichi Katsura and Rob Thomson. CRS Racing drivers Tim Mullen, Phil Quaife, Adam Christodoulou plus Andreas Möntmann will share a Bonk Motorsport BMW M3 GT4; the quartet fresh off a class victory in the fifth VLN race.

Guy Smith will share an RJN Motorsport Nissan 370 Z with Kurt Thiim, Duncan Huisman and Alex Buncombe.

A lone Ginetta G50 will be fielded for Torsten and Dirk Kornmeyer, plus Hendrik Still. Another lone wolf is the Maserati MC GT24 by Gentle Swiss Racing for David Schwägli and Adriana Grugger. Dennis Rostek, last year’s 24 Hours third place finisher, will share a BMW M3 GT4 with Duncan Huismann, Andreas Simonsen and Stefan Landmann. Four other GT4 cars will be taking part in the race.

Next to their Golf GT24, Volkswagen Motorsport will also field three of their so successful Volkswagen Sciroccos.

Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Bernd Ostmann, Peter Wyss and Vanina Ickx are racing in one car, while Nasser Al-Attiyah, Carlos Sainz, Giniel de Villies and Klaus Niedzwiedz will share another. The final car is for Dieter Depping and Francois Verbist. Also racing in the class for alternative fuels is the Dodge Viper of Titus and Julius Dittmann, plus Victor Smolski. Dittmann is collecting money for his charity, Skate Aid, with which the German skate board legend is building skate parks in Afghanistan.

Raeder Motorsport, in conjunction with Audi Quattro GmbH, is fielding two Audi TT-RS in the Sp4T class. The cars are powered by a 2.5 litre turbo engine.

Michael Ammermüller, Frank Biela, Jens Klingmann and Martin Tomczyk will share one car, while the other is driven by Christian Hohenadel, Jimmy Johansson, Miguel Molina and Andrea Piccini.

Racing diesel sportscars is nothing new for Alexandre Premat, having raced for Audi at the Le Mans 24 Hours. But this time the French driver won’t be driving in a fast car, he will be sharing one of the Peugeot RCZ HDI with Jonathan Cochet and Bruce Jouanny. The other RCZ is driven by Michael Bohrer, Stephane Caillet and Jürgen Nett. Last year the RCZ was the highest finishing diesel car.

Back for another run at some ‘Ring glory is the Opel Manta of Kissling Motorsport. Olaf Beckmann, Volker Strycek and Peter Hass will try to get a better result than in last year’s race, when the car was out of the race even before the sun went down on Saturday.

Johnny O’Connell makes his Nürburgring 24 Hours debut, but not in a car you would expect him to. Together with Anders Majgaard, Niels Borum and Dan Träger, O’Connell will share a Renault Clio Cup III.

That’s it for our preview; there are so many other cars taking part that we’d need another dozen pieces to fit them all in. We will try to bring you as much info as possible during the race weekend.

Sören Herweg