Audi First And Second, Madness Finishes Third

Could this have been the craziest finish ever to a Nürburgring 24 Hours? Within a lap of the end, third to fifth places all changed and even as the chequered flag was being readied for the winner two cars were smashed to pieces right on the finish line. This is what a Porsche looks like when crossed with a Renault Clio.

The #11 Manthey Porsche (which had been holding the final podium place) slowed to a halt just after the line despite the leader not yet having taken the flag. As he sat there the #169 Renault Clio flashed down the open straight – and instead of avoiding the static car ploughed straight into the back of the Porsche, critically damaging both cars and spraying debris over the line!

Behind all this chaos, the actual winner was the #3 Audi Sport Team Phoenix R8 LMS Ultra, crewed by Marc Basseng, Christopher Haase, Frank Stippler and Markus Winkelhock. They took the win after another Nürburgring 24 Hours that no one was able to truly dominate, crossing the line about a minute after the madness had unfolded in front of them and probably feeling very confused passing the stricken cars.

In a clear second was the #26 Mamerow Racing Audi R8 LMS Ultra driven by Christian Mamerow, Christian Abt, Michael Ammermüller and Armin Hahne – they had been fending off the #65 Hankook Team Heico Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG when the Mercedes suffered from an overheating engine. The Merc’s engine let go after he’d barely entered the full Norschleife with just 15 minutes left. The driver carried on for as long as he could with smoke pouring from the engine bay, but was forced to stop out on track with half a lap still to go – a heart-breaking end for the crew.

This turned what had been a tough battle for fourth into a fight for the final podium place: the #11 Wochenspiegel Team Manthey Porsche 911 GT3R had bounced back from minor problems during the early morning to steal fourth position from the #66 Hankook SLS with less than an hour on the clock – which became third on the demise of #65. But with two laps left #66 had closed right back up to the tail of the Porsche.

These two went at it hammer and tongs over the final laps of the race, with the Manthey car under intense pressure, diving past traffic, attacking every rise, jump and kerb and stretching out a small margin on the Grand Prix track that he managed to maintain all the way until Döttinger Höhe. Here Mercedes grunt towed it up to the tail of the 911 and the Porsche weaved to try and break the tow. There were still over 20 seconds to the official end of the 24 Hours, so another lap would have been necessary. Which is when the Porsche slowed just after the line… Were yet to find out the full story of why he did that – and the Clio driver’s story!

The Speedhunters WRT team suffered an overly eventful race, with the contact damage halfway through the race crippling the car and meaning the drivers were always on the back foot from then on. Finally the rear hub bearing broke on the #4 R8, putting it back in the garage with over half an hour to go: the Speedhunters WRT team rolled the car back out for a final slow lap to take the official finish.

2012 Nürbrugring 24 Hours Result
1: #3 Phoenix Audi R8 LMS Ultra 155 laps
2: #26 Mamerow Racing Audi R8 LMS Ultra +3:35s
3: #66 Hankook Team Heico Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG +11:35s
4: #29 Marc VDS BMW Z4 +1 lap
5: #65 Hankook Team Heico Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG +3 laps
6: #2 Phoenix Audi R8 LMS Ultra +4 laps
7: #28 Porsche 911 GT3R +4 laps
8: #19 BMW Team Schubert Z4 +5 laps
9: #20 BMW Team Schubert Z4 +5 laps
10: #21 Rowe Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG +5 laps

TOP CLASS POSITIONS
AT #190 Audi A4

SP2T #100 Peugeot RCZ

SP3 #166 Gazoo

SP3T #133 Subaru Impreze

SP4T #112 Audi TT S

SP5 #106 BMW 1

SP6 #98 BMW Z4

SP7 #150 Kremer Porsche (in the top 20 overall)

SP8 #83 LFA (also in the top 20 overall)

SP8T #123 Nissan GT-R

SP10 #70 BMW M3

V3 #200 GT86

V4 #208 Mercedes-Benz C230

V5 #221 BMW E92

V6 #233 Black Falcon BMW M3

Jonathan Moore

Speedhunters at the 2012 Nürburgring 24 Hours

ADVERTISEMENT

Comments



Comments are closed.

17 comments

by Oldest
by Best by Newest by Oldest
1

the porsche had no more fuel :)

2

Wait so why did he stop after the line when he could have kept going to win?

3

Oh wait... nvm, the other guy says it had no fuel. He should have pushed.

4

 @Lastspark He couldn't win. was gunna be third, but now DNF..

5

Congratulation to Lexus LFA & Toyota 86 !

6

What a fight from #11 Porsche, incredible! He tried to swap third position to fourth, cause the lack of fuel. If he just had kept the car away from that line before the #3 car passes him.

7

Awesome race and a great atmosphere the whole weekend, very fan orientated which I loved! Definitely back for more action next year!

8

Too bad the Speedhunters WRT Audi R8 broke down. But still it was a awesome race!

9

gtr not winning? :( well. thats the beauty of endurance racing. finishing is more important than winning. :) love nurburgring!

10

Fantastic especially the top class positions and 24 hours results.
<a href="http://www.usedcarsexport.com">Usedcarsexport</a>

11

Shame the No. 19 & 20 BMW's didn't get a podium finish, but at least they finished in the top 10. :)

12
Whipper Snapper

You forgot that the no. 123 Nissan GTR won the SP8 class, just because it's sponsored by a rival video game doesn't mean you ignore it, they'd pretty much feature you guys in a congratulatory post if you had won.

13
AhmadinedschadMahmud

I agree with Whipper Snapper. It's a Nissan!

14

But they didn't win SP8 class... Gazoo racing did...

15

GTR = SP8T

16

 @Michel H Ah no, not at all! The only reason they're not mentioned here is that they were in their own class of only two cars: if we'd mentioned all the specialist classes with only a handful of cars we'd still be writing the report now! The GT-Rs looked great – they'll be in the race wrap-ups over the coming days. :)

17

Ah no, not at all! The only reason they're not mentioned here is that they were in their own class of only two cars: if we'd mentioned all the specialist classes with only a handful of cars we'd still be writing the report now! The GT-Rs looked great – they'll be in the race wrap-ups over the coming days. :)

OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS