GUARD TRANSMISSION

BUCKET LIST NURBURGRING 24 HOURSWELCOME TOTHE GREEN HELLBY KEVIN EHRLICHThe headlines for Porsche were somewhat grimheading into the 2015 edition of the Nürburgring24 Hours. Challenging for overall honors was goingto be a stretch.The 997 GT3 R platform is at the end of its developmentlife. Gestation of the new model has been a bitdelayed. The successor 991 GT3 R car was shown inthe Porsche hospitality building publicly for the firsttime. Following a trend already seen in the US, somecustomers—such as the well-known Haribo Racingteam—moved from Porsche to other platforms (theMercedes AMG SLS in this case).The Audis have proven dominant over the past fewyears, and a new and much meaner looking R8 LMSwas making its race debut at the Nürburgring 24 intenton continuing the trend. The BMW Z4 was making itslast Nürburgring 24 appearance with factory support.Without an overall win to the Z4’s credit, BMW waskeen to claim top honors before moving on to the M6program. As in past years, the Z4 was very fast but thequestion was fragility.The Mercedes AMG SLS was also likely seeing its lastopportunity to claim another Nürburgring 24 hourwin. AMG will continue to support customers whowant to race, but factory emphasis will move to thenew GT race car in 2016.Against this backdrop, only three Porsches took thegrid in the top class: local legends Manthey Racing andFrikadelli Racing (“The fastest meatball in the world”)along with regular entrant Falken Racing. Of course,they weren’t racing alone. Even though a little lighterthan past years, the entry covered 21 classes and about150 cars at the green flag. There was a scattering ofprivateer 911 and Cayman models through the field,but the top of the grid was filled by Audi, BMW andMercedes—with the SCG003 from American JimGlickenhaus thrown in the mix to make its race debut.A start at the Nürburgring 24 hours is somethingto behold. The starting grid is open to spectatorsPHOTOGRAPHY BY THE AUTHORbefore the race, which results in thousands of peopleswarming the cars, drivers and crews. No special passor credential required. The starting grid itself is so largethat three pace cars are used to divide up the field andrelease each group separately.The story of the race has been reported in detailelsewhere, but it was another Nürburgring classic. TheBelgian WRT new Audi R8 LMS took top honors witha 40 second gap over the Marc VDS BWM Z4. Althoughthey won with a German car, the victory marksthe first overall win for a non-German team in manyyears. Team Falken claimed a very happy third placeoverall a lap off the lead for their best ever result. TheFalken Porsche showed bruises and tape on its nosefairly early in the race from an incident in the rain.The Manthey Racing GT3R finished 17th overall withan 11 gap to the leaders. The Frikadelli Porsche endedits race prematurely near midnight with crash damageinflicted just near the Karussell. Sadly, the car was inthe lead when it encountered trouble. The overnighthours claimed many other casualties, including severaltop running Audis. The BWMs were, as predicted, fastand fragile. Crash damage took out at least one andanother produced quite a fireball on pit lane (quicklyextinguished).As always, rain played a factor by visiting duringThursday’s evening practice and then for the firstthird of the race. Many cars suffered damage dueto rain-related accidents and the changing conditionschallenged drivers and crews on tire selection.At one point, it was pouring on the Dottinger Hoheand completely dry in the pits.A spectacular crash and spectator death in a preliminaryrace several weeks before the event lead organizersto impose speed limits on two parts of the track. Therewas and remains considerable debate about the wisdomof speed limits on a green racing track. No questionthat the speed limits impacted the racing. Some carsreach terminal speed more quickly than others. Somecars lose the chance to use their top speed advantage.Peril lurked at every slow zone,whether for speed limits or crashesor track repairs, and some carssustained damage or had close callsas they or others failed to slow at thesame rate or the same spots.Speed limiting as the ultimatesolution is still an open questionand there are a range of options andopinions. The purist still struggleswith the idea of any speed limit ona green race course. The KremerPorsche team made a simplestatement by putting the universalGerman autobahn unrestrictedspeed sign on its car and on thedoor of its hospitality suite.Tradition at the Nürburgring (forsome of us at least) dictates a morningwalk among the garages, pitsand along the track to survey theretirements, the repairs in progress,and the rolling wounded. The ethosof the event to survive and finishis an essential element of whatmakes the race unique. Marshals,spectators, crews and drivers allwould rather see a car limp home tothe finish than retire, regardless ofthe finishing position. Body panelsare often missing and prodigiousamounts of helicopter tape are usedto keep loose bits together.Tradition also was maintained inthe forest camping areas alongsidethe track. The same people campin the same areas year after year.Unlike places like Le Mans werecamping areas are a hundred yardsfrom trackside, the Germans builddirectly adjacent to the track. Theengineering is impressive. Scaffoldingis pieced together to create tallviewing structures. Wood patiossport satellite television, flowerboxes and artificial grass. Generatorspower everything from refrigeratorsto tv, to monster sound systems.52 VELOCITY AUGUST 2015AUGUST 2015 VELOCITY 53