24h Nürburgring 2010 - 15/16 May - updated post

After having wanted to go to this race for at least ten years, I finally got the opportunity to do so this year and instantly decided to go there. The special spirit of the 24h Nürburgring is that there aren't only 30 fast cars entering this race to battle it out - there were 197 cars, split up into more than a dozen classes, this year - from a 15 year old Seat Ibiza to a 20 year old Audi V8 luxury sedan to the latest GT4, GT3 and even a few GT2 race cars. Unfortunately I had failed to check if my camera's batteries were full, so I couldn't take a single picture or video.

That's why I decided to dig up the TV broadcast of the end of the warmup lap until the end of the first lap. The cars start in three groups. The start of Group 1 can be seen at approximately 1:30.
Keep an eye on the yellow and green #1 Porsche 911 GT3 R starting from 7th position as it plows through the field while the leaders are still on the GP track. Sorry, the commentary is German.



Just a few things you might want to know if you haven't watched or followed the race in a live ticker or something:

Volker Strycek, head of Opel Motorsport, had a serious accident in the venerable 245 hp Kissling Motorsport Opel Manta 16v during the first laps after the rear suspension broke at about 110 mph in the Galgenkopf turn. It was a short goodbye race for it (the Manta is unlikely to be allowed to start another time next year - it already needed special permission this year), but it was a joy to watch it hunt a red '06 Subaru Impreza WRX to which it was slowly reducing the gap on!
Retirements were not limited to semi-amateurs and amateurs though: neither of the five Porsche 911 GT3 R's (4x Manthey Racing (kind of factory backed - including the GT3 R hybrid testbed), 1x Mamerow Racing) finished - same fate for all but two of the Audi R8 LMS's (7 or 8 started), the Viper Comp. Coupe and unfortunately also the Porsche 911 RSR with Sabine Schmitz among 3 other drivers (retired after 22h).

Top 10 Ranking:

1 - # 25 - BMW Motorsport - BMW M3 GT2 - 154 laps (1 lap short of last year's distance record)
2 - # 43 - Farnbacher Team Hankook - Ferrari F430 GTC
3 - # 97 - Team Phoenix - Audi R8 LMS
4 - # 76 - Schubert Motorsport - BMW Z4 GT3
5 - # 102 - Black Falcon - Audi R8 LMS
6 - # 20 - H&R Spezialfedern - Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S
7 - # 26 - BMW Motorsport - BMW M3 GT2 - despite this accident only 4 laps behind the winner
8 - # 18 - Rowe Motorsport - Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S
9 - # 69 - Dörr Motorsport - BMW Z4 GT3
10 - # 35 - Scuderia Offenbach - Porsche 911 GT3 Cup

Even though it looks pretty warm in the pictures, there were less than 10°C for most of the race, and as low as 3°C during the night. But with the right clothes even this worked.
I watched the race together with my father. At the start we were about 10 meters down the track from where the camera at 4:08 is located: at Flugplatz - great place to watch from!
The sound level produced by the cars was kind of ok even without earflaps, although some of the 2.0 turbos - to name a few, the VW Sciroccos, a Golf and the Seat Leon Supercopas - and especially the Lexus LF-A's made the ears hurt a bit (not because they were not as quiet as the Audi R8s, they just sounded shit). The three BMW Z4 GT3s, the Audis, Porsches and the Viper Competition Coupe and the GT4 Beemers sounded a lot nicer. Best of all were the exhaust notes of the Z4 GT3's in my opinion.

Spectator numbers were lower than I had expected, so there was plenty of room left to move wherever I watched the race from, be it Flugplatz, Hohe Acht or even Start/Finish.
I didn't witness any serious accidents, only saw the aftermath of a small one and perhaps a bigger one (couldn't see from my viewpoint).
A BMW E46 coupe had a broken right front suspension and a few laps later a Seat Leon Supercopa had to be towed away from Quiddelbacher Höhe past my viewpoint at Flugplatz - the right front wheel wasn't moving, painting a nice, thick, black line of rubber onto the track.

After about 10 laps we changed our location to Hohe Acht (highest point of the track). From the parking lot in the middle of the forest it was a walk of at least 30 minutes to the track, where what you mainly found were either people watching the race, or such that had their campers behind and below the dam the track is built on in the approach to that turn. They were sitting there at 5 pm and instead of watching the race their main task was emptying beer bottles.

Following this rather.. interesting experience, we walked back to the car through the mud and relocated to the bridge across the super long straight, AKA Döttinger Höhe, from where one could see a little bit of the cars as well - this was where I noticed that my camera's batteries were empty, and that all of my spare batteries were empty as well.

On Sunday, we observed what was left of the field of 197 cars, including rather bizarre vehicles like a very old Seat Ibiza or an Audi A8 W12 (what a tank!) until about 40 mins from the finish. Unfortunately that was when my stay at the Ring was over, because I had to catch my train in Koblenz at 4 pm, which could have become difficult with major traffic jams.

In conclusion: This weekend simply rocked! Despite giant camper/tent cities full of drunks like at Brünnchen, the atmosphere at the track was amazing - and the race was full of drama from start to finish! Should I be able to go there again next year, I'm pretty sure I will - especially as the Mercedes SLS GT3, which Mercedes-Benz exhibited inside the ring°boulevard (main grandstands building on start/finish straight), will be entering the race next year. And I think I also made a decision on where to watch the race from again!

Flugplatz is just too amazing to watch MINIs turn at nearly GT3-rivaling speed from: easily 110 mph!

Nice dramatic recap (HD)

DANDY wrote:Nice dramatic recap (HD)

EPIC. Thanks for posting that D.

Wow! Thanks for posting D.