Manthey-Porsche wins Nordschleife thriller
39th ADAC Zurich 24 Hours Race 23rd to 26th June 2011
The 39th edition of the ADAC Zurich was won in spectacular style by the Manthey Porsche team of Marc Lieb (Germany) / Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) / Timo Bernhard (Germany) / Romain Dumas (Switzerland) in their #18 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, securing an astonishing and record equalling fifth win in six years.
In another thrilling race held at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife, the Manthey Porsche team prevailed ahead of last year's winning works #1 BMW M3 GT and the #14 Phoenix Bilstein Audi R8 LMS, finally finishing, after 156 laps and a total of 3,958.968 kilometres, just over 4minutes ahead of the runner-up, in what was arguably the fastest 24 Hours race of all time.
The Manthey #18 Porsche took the lead on Saturday at 23.25 hours and managed to hold on right to the end, managing an incredible 16 hours and 35 minutes, or 108 consistently fast laps, on one of the toughest race tracks on earth at the head of the field!
The innovative #9 Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid, that had victory snatched by a technical problem in 2010 once again gave an impressive performance, finally finishing 28th, some 17 laps behind the winner. Although the result doesn't really tell the whole story! The 911 GT3 R Hybrid moved into the lead on Saturday about four hours after the start. But a number of technical issues both on Saturday and a racing incident on Sunday morning put paid to any realistic challenge.
The #22 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG was denied a podium finish and a class win, when it had to pit 43 minutes before the end with a technical problem, opening the door for the #14 Phoenix Bilstein Audi R8 LMS to secure both a podium finish and a class win for the Audi R8 LMS. This was the third time in succession that the Audi had won its class. The unfortunate technical issue for Black Falcon enabled the #15 and #16 Audis of Team Phoenix and Team Abt to snatch 4th and 5th positions overall and providing the Audi R8 LMS with a 1-2-3 in the GT3 class.
And whilst Audi, Ferrari and Mercedes (all of whom had cars leading the race) dreamed of taking overall victory, it was once again the impressive Porsche that ensured they all failed to open their account.
The Aston Martin team took a brave decision to field two of its new V12 Zagato concept cars and a V8 Vantage N24 in the race and managed to retain their 100% finishing record as all three factory run cars came home after incidents (including a pit lane accident!) and technical trouble affected the podium ambitions of all three. At the finish the #5 Aston Martin V12 Zagato ('Zig' – green livery) took 5th place in the SP8 class with sister car, #3 V12 Zagato ('Zag' – red livery) finishing 6th.
As usual there were a number of racing incidents throughout the race, with the two most major accidents eliminating the challenge from the Team Need for Speed by Schubert Racing squad, with both the #76 and #77 Z4GT3s being totally destroyed after spectacular accidents – thankfully both drivers were fine.
Other points of interest included the battle amongst the EVO drivers, Chris Harris (#56 Porsche GT3 Cup), Dickie Meaden (#5 Aston Martin V12 Zagato - 'Zig') and John Barker (#28 Audi R8 LMS). The honours were taken by John Barker finishing an excellent 18th in the Audi, closely followed by Chris Harris' Porsche, 20th. However, following all the incidents and challenges faced by Dickie Meaden's Aston Martin, his completion of the race in 118th position was probably the greatest achievement of the three. Congratulations to them all.
Also was the highly emotional final appearance as professional driver of Hans-Joachim 'Striezel' Stuck. Having won the first ever Nürburgring 24h-Race, back in 1970, it laid the cornerstone for an amazing motor-racing career, which inevitably came to an end where it all started. Together with his sons, Johannes and Ferdinand, as well as Dennis Rostek (Germany), the final race of his career was in the #34 Lamborghini LG 600, which driving the final stint, he literally brought home in a very respectable 15th position overall.
Here's to the 2012 race - which whilst no dates have yet been announced, will no doubt be just as exciting and spectacular!
Why not go and see this spectacular event for yourself ?
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