Preview of the 24h Nürburgring

For many it is the race of the year. The ADAC 24 hours race on the Nürburgring attracts every year more than 200.000 fans to the race track. Every year around the German anniversary day “Fronleichnam” the entire region round the cities of Ahrweiler and Adenau transforms completely. Why? Because the 24h race is a kind of motorsport that is accessible for everybody.

Whoever says that the race is a mens affair is completely wrong. The race has gotten a character of a national festival. Drivers, teams and spectators meet, most of them with the entire family, every year again since 1970 at the “Old” Nordschleife. People barbecue, life, party and even vote at the track. At some parts of the track an election for mayor is held, wo desides where which flags are waved.

Round the near 19 km long track of the Nordschleife there are a lot of tents, caravans, wooden sheds, flags and people, who not seldom even climb into the trees, to have the best view on the track.

It all started 81 years ago with the construction of the Nürburgring, when almost 3000 workers constructed the track in the nature. What only few people know is that there also has been a Südschleife, but hasn’t been used anymore since the eighties. It gave the Nordschleife it’s name, as it is the northern part of the track.

Nothing could get the Nordschleife down, not even big accidents, like the one of Niki Lauda in 1977 in Formula 1 or even deadly accidents every year, where racing drivers but also amateur drivers died at the track. After the almost deadly accident of Niki Lauda however, the old Nordschleife never hosted a Formula 1 race again.

Since then there have been much more Touring Car races on the track, like the DTM that raced at the Nordschleife between 1988 and 1993. There have also been a lot of amateur events like “Rad & Run am Ring” (Cycle & Run at the Ring), that brought live to the Nordschleife.

Apart from that the fascination is supported by the fact that the track is, apart from some minor changes, still is in it’s original shape. The 73 corners, the 18% height difference and 11 slopes were mastered at fastest by Hans Joachim Stuck in the first edition of the 24 hour race in 1970.

A few years later Niki Lauda added his name to the list of winners. Not much later two editions of the race had to be cancelled because of the oil crisis. After that the race became mainly an event for amateur drivers. Not untill the nineteeneighties the Works teams and professional drivers startet to get interested in the 24 hour race at the Ring again. Among them Klaus Ludwig, who had won the 24 hours of Le Mans just before that. In 1989 the German TV-channel 3Sat was the first to broadcast the race the entire 24 hours live.

In the mid nineties, after the DTM wasn’t in the support program anymore, and the rules were changed, the amateur drivers returned to the race. They raced cars that were close the production Touring Cars. The return of the amateurs saw Sabine Reck from Nürburg win the 24 hour race as the first female driver in 1996 and 1997. She also won the VLN championship. In 1998 the race had another scoop, as a BMW 320d took the first diesel powered victory. The car was driver among others by legend Hans Joachim Stück and Sabine Reck.

From 1999 more powerfull cars were admitted, like the Chrysler Viper GTS-R, that was entered in the FIA GT2 championship by Oreca. At the Ring, the car was entered by Zakspeed and dominated the race. A lot of new technologies were tested in the race as well, like the Audi A4 STW of Team Abt Sportsline, that was poweder by liquid gas. Despite many gear box problems the car reached the finish of the race. The same achievement was done by Volkswagen Motorsport, that entered a completely new developed Bora TDI kit-car.

From 2003 on there were also modified DTM cars in the race, as Opel and Audi both entered two works teams. BMW entered a V8 powered car from the ALMS as well. The majority of the cars however are still the “normal” cars like a Opel Corsa, a Volkswagen Gold or a BMW M3. But also very strange cars have been entered, like a tuned Volkswagen T4 van that was race by a privateer team in 2002.

But this year there will be spectacular cars at the start as well, like a Opel Manta or a Audi 200 Quattro with over 400 BHP. And ofcourse there will be national and international stars again who will take part in the adrenaline kick. Richard Göransson (BMW Z4 Coupé), Tom Coronel and Duncan Huisman (both Dodge Viper GTR), Christian Abt , Richard Westbrook, Pierre Kaffer and Frank Stippler (all Porsche) there are a lot of stars with a big shot at winning the race. Especially the entry of Marc Hennerici, privateer champion in the ETCC in 2005, will be spectacular.

Together with Team Kissling, known from the ProCar series, he will race a Chevrolet Corvette they developped themselves. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Dirk Müller will have the underdog position in the race, as they will enter a hybrid powered Gumpert Apollo.

The car with 630 BHP was entered just before the final release of the entrylist. Only the biggest optimists believe the car will see the finish. Real prognosises can’t be made. Not about the weather, nor about the winner of the race. Due to the extreme height differences and the extremely long circuit it’s not rare that it’s pooring with rain at one part of the track, when on other parts the sunning is shining. Every 24 hour race writes it’s own rules and the race against the clock brings big surprises every year again. Enjoy the 230 teams on may 24th and 25th, when they take on the battle with the dangerous Nordschleife and the clock.