24H Nürburgring: Many individual fates 🎥

AVERAGE SWISS BALANCE Two Swiss were able to celebrate class victories after the Nürburgring 24 Hours. A Zurich team briefly led the race. In the end, Nico Müller was once again the best. Dries Vanthoor's slight accident dashed the last hopes of a victory for the Audi with Nico Müller. The Audi R8 LMS [...]

Editorial - October 2, 2020

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Dries Vanthoor's minor accident dashed the last hopes of victory for the Audi with Nico Müller.

The Audi R8 LMS from Phoenix Racing lived up to its starting number #1 in several phases of the race that was marred by lousy autumn weather and interrupted for nine and a half hours. Before and after the forced break, the team with Nico Müller was in the lead. The question of the right tire dominated the discussions at the command post for hours.

Nico Müller in the lead for a long time
As the battle for the podium places came to a head, all the top teams opted for rain tires for the Nordschleife, which was still wet throughout. Only Phoenix switched to semi-slicks, making up more than ten seconds per lap.

Nico Müller: "We had to play poker in order not to lose our chance of victory. We were the fastest car in the field and made up a lot of ground. In addition, we switched back to rain tires at the perfect time, which put us in a very good position for the final sprint for victory."

However, a slight impact by Dries Vanthoor around 30 minutes before the end, which resulted in a puncture, dashed hopes of repeating last year's success. What remained was a fifth-place finish.

The Audi with Nico Müller was number one on the track for a long time, but the closing stages did not play into his cards (Photos: Adrian Zumstein).

Handicap for Goodyear teams
The first ever leader was Octane126's Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo, started by Jonathan Hirschi. But the handicap of the team from Wallisellen was already clear before the wet start: With the still underdeveloped rain tires, all Goodyear teams were behind.

The Ferrari's loss of power, imposed at short notice by the rule makers, therefore played a subordinate role. The man from Neuchâtel was still able to defend himself on the GP circuit. But as soon as he entered the Nordschleife, he was attacked in packs.

Because the tires could only be brought up to temperature to some extent in the dry, the four Octane drivers were only concerned with getting the Italian sports car over the distance without an accident. They managed this with a respectable 20th place overall under these conditions.

In the dry, Luca Ludwig qualified the Swiss Ferrari for second place on the grid, but on the two race days it was too wet for the tires, which had not been tested enough in the rain.

Merciless disqualifications
But because Simon Trummer had completed one lap too few (only 14 instead of at least 15), he was disqualified. Seven other teams suffered the same fate, and the ADAC showed no mercy despite the greatly reduced race duration.

The best-placed Goodyear team at the end was Car Collection Motorsport with Patric Niederhauser and his two team partners in 16th position overall and second in the Pro-Am class. The fourth driver Miroslav Konopka was excluded from the race for misconduct in qualifying, whereupon the Audi R8 had to start from the pit lane and later serve three penalty minutes.

Patric Niederhauser: "From that point of view, we got the maximum out of it. In the rain, we had no chance against the Michelin cars. In the dry, we would certainly have finished in the top ten."

According to Octane126 CEO Christian Bertschinger, Goodyear is determined to make up for this handicap soon. Preferably with his team as development partner.

Patric Niederhauser's Audi team started the race with a multiple handicap. 16th place was a relatively good result in the end.

Withdrawal of Rahel Frey's team
For a long time, the second Ferrari team with Nikolaj Rogivue as one of the four drivers was better placed than Octane126. But when a broken drive shaft in the fourth-last hour necessitated an hour-long repair, the team was ultimately no better than 44th overall. This also meant that the tangible victory in the Pro-Am classification of the top SP9 class was lost.

Philip Ellis from Zug, who starts for his home country Great Britain, finished the difficult race in ninth position overall. His Mercedes-AMG entered by HRT had to be rebuilt after a training accident involving a teammate, so the advance from 20th on the grid into the top ten was satisfactory in the end.

Due to the unfortunate track conditions, which were almost unacceptable for non-professionals, the private team supported by customer sport works driver Rahel Frey withdrew its Audi R8 LMS after the race interruption.

Ruedi Rhyn ensured the only class victory for a Swiss driver in the strongly fielded series Cayman.

Victories for Rhyn and Hofor
For one Swiss, however, the will to persevere really paid off. With three internationally decorated professionals as partners on a Porsche Cayman S, Ruedi Rhyn took victory in the V6 class. With clean driving, they distanced their only opponent by just seven minutes.

A mere 107 seconds separated the BMW M4 GT4 of Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport, which won the SP10 class, from its strongest rival. The car entered by Hofor boss Martin Kroll together with Bonk was in front in a controlled manner from the start.

The BMW team around Hofor boss Martin Kroll had the action in the GT4 class under control.

In the alternative drive class, Marco Timbal and Nicola Bravetti from Ticino finished second in a Cayman GT4 CS after leading for a long time. As mentioned at the outset, they also had a tire handicap that in the end put them behind the 911 GT3 Cup driven by and featuring the well-known musician "Smudo" (Die Fantastischen Vier).

The other placings and failures of Swiss and foreigners with Swiss license or residence are shown in these official Class results to see. And in the following gallery you can see some corresponding cars.