Unless you’ve ignored Speedhunters over the past few days, you’ll have no doubt witnessed a fair amount of excitement around the 24 Hours Nürburgring race.
There are many, many reasons for this. Not least because it’s the Nürburgring – undoubtedly the world’s most challenging and revered track (excluding the M25 on a Friday afternoon). Doing 24 hours of this behemoth in any car would be quite spicy, let alone a 550bhp GT3-spec monster amidst a field of fierce/German competitors.
But, as with everything we tend to love in 2020, it hasn’t come without its fair share of pandemic-shaped drawbacks. Typically, N24 takes place in May when the weather is quite nice. Apart from the time it snowed in the middle of the race, but let’s scoot over that for now. Instead, 2020 saw the race pushed back to September, when it’s colder, wetter, and there’s even less daylight. I’m not an expert on endurance racing, but I don’t think those are ideal criteria.
There were no 200,000+ fans lining the Nordschleife either, which made it downright eerie at times. Brunnchen, otherwise known as YouTube corner, was completely void of campers and aggressive Euro techno music. The grandstands were spattered with a handful of socially-distanced fans, while face masks were inevitably mandatory within the complex.
In the run-up to N24, I genuinely thought it might be quite nice to cover such a mad event without battling fans and media. In hindsight, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I wasn’t alone in that thought, either. Without fans camping and partying across the circuit, drivers found it more difficult to judge their braking points as the race entered into the night. Aside from giving us a hell of an atmosphere, it turns out they’re pretty integral to visibility given the Nordschleife (aside from sections of the GP track) is in complete darkness.
Then there was the competitor list. Halved from 180+ to ‘just’ 97 cars this year, it was also absent of a few big names, including Speedhunters’ favourite, Manthey Racing. When several team members tested positive for COVID after Le Mans, the decision was made to pull out of the N24 altogether, leaving a Grello-shaped hole in the process.
For other privateer competitors, the sheer uncertainty of whether or not the race would even go ahead was too much of a financial risk to sign off.
But this is the N24 after all; the world’s toughest endurance race with the wildest outcome. You don’t decide who wins the race… the Nordschleife does. I may have stolen that quote from one of the commentators over the weekend, but it’s too good a statement not to repeat.
The AMGs dominated qualifying and sprinted away to an early lead, right until the point the heavens really opened into the night. The problem here was, the heavens didn’t really close, and after several cars crashed out amidst the bad weather (including the leading AMG) the race found itself red-flagged for a full nine hours.
If you think that sounds like an overreaction, check out the onboard footage from Kelvin Van Der Linde just before the session was stopped. I wouldn’t fancy driving on the road in those conditions, let alone flat out around the ‘Ring with 96 others.
As the soggy-yet-chequered flag waved on the Sunday, the overall top spot would go to the #99 Rowe Racing BMW M6 – a welcome winner after Audi’s domination over the past few years, and BMW’s first win in a decade. Here’s the thing though, after all that running the two cars were separated by just 20 seconds.
That’s the real reason why the N24 will always be a highlight race. Few events, or even series, give that level of racing over a 90-minute race, let alone a 24-hour one. If a Hamilton-piloted Mercedes can gain a 20-second lead from second place in half an F1 race, you’ve got a fundamental problem on your hands. But we’ll save that for a much deeper discussion…
Until then, feast your eyes on all our favourite shots from this year’s N24 race, and let us know in the comments what your favourite moment was.
Mark Riccioni
Instagram: mark_scenemedia
Twitter: markriccioni
mark@scene-media.com
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"You don’t decide who wins the race… the Nordschleife does." i love that about endurance racing. it really is about overcoming so many variables and out lasting the rest by being the best team. and yes, sometimes luckiest. but you control what you can control.
it is hard to compare it directly to F1. both forms of racing have their strong points and weaknesses. the GT formulas and BoP gives great racing but we also like to see the most extreme technology (which is what F1 should be imho).
they can be appreciated differently. kinda like beer versus wine. which makes drag racing like a shot of tequila i guess.
^^^ this. Couldn't agree more!
Did the opel manta 400 run this year?
Havent seen anything about it
Clutch broke befor the N24, needed a complete rebuild of clutch and gearbox. the didn´t hat the time.
many homegrown racecars where missing this N24, the orange Golf MKIII and the red BRZ (now with a V6) missing too. I spotted only the black Opel Astra H
It is not a v6, but a flat 6 from a subaru svx.
p.s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gggAHyigJw
The gallery we've all being waiting for! Stunning, Mark.
It always amazes me how intense the racing is at N24 and also how endurance races can go right down to the wire. The last 2-hours of this year's race were phenomenal to watch.
Great, astonishing, incredible photos. But in the text, I had hoped for more than a elegy about what corona did to the race. Even the faulty positive tests of the Manthey team have not been mentioned. What has happened to the Octane126 Ferrari, nothing. The Mercedes crashes - nothing. The only-girls team - nothing. The tricky last pit stops - nothing. 9 of 10 top 10 cars were on the same tyre brand, one wasn`t - still nothing about it.
Maybe the real thing is going to be posted at a later point in time.
We should've likely addressed this earlier, but we've got more content incoming from the N24 as - like you quite rightly point out - there's an almost neverending supply of good stories despite the COVID restrictions and set backs. For now, this was simply a picture-led gallery to celebrate this year's event but keep checking back for more (including quite a cool insight into how the entire event is live streamed globally)
Thank you Mark! Picture-wise there is nothing that could possibly be improved. Altho, as a Fan, there can always be just more and more and more
Awesome! German cars are works of art! Cannot be the next F1 is at the Ring! 7 mile loop. It looks VERY narrow though. When is the last time an F1 was at the Ring?! I'll look it up. Great pics.
Great article, love the photos as always Mr. Riccioni
Wow. Just wow. Incredible pictures Mark. The sense of speed you were able to convey with your shots is truly something to list after. Almost all of these pictures would be great on a poster or framed on a wall. Those Mercedes are incredibly hard to drive, and I couldn't even imagine trying to drive in the downpour they did. I've tried driving similar cars in my .com racing cockpit and the oversteer on the race prepped AMG
cars was near impossible to control. These are rwd monsters and the driver's of them have immense skill (I think the team I was rooting for may be showing). Those Audis were really very fast too. What a great ad for Audi when all the R8 GT3s were in front.
I must admit, the sight and sound of the R8 GT3s is hard to beat irrespective of pace - those cars were absolutely flying! And you can see why they've won so often with 'em over the past decade. That being said, i don't think anyone will have an issue with BMW taking the win this year, and the noise those things make is properly cool. Polar opposite to the road cars haha!
Mark, you are such a master behind the camera. Those shots are breathtaking! Thank you for sharing them.
Watched the race right after I got back from holiday where I was an hour away from the Green Hell. Went there to watch TF the Sunday in advance to get myself hyped for the race. Although, that meant missing Le Mans after watching that the entire Saturday while being on holiday.
I was sad it was canceled during the night since normally that's the real beauty of this race. But it was a good call, considering the view the drivers had. Barely any.
Credit where credit is due mister Riccioni, your photo's really capture the mood of this years race.
Spectacular photography and subject matter. Love the Speedhunters!! Thanks for taking me there.
Wasn't that section with the jump recently rebuilt to stop the cars from getting airborne? Anyway, fantastic shots. Even without the partiers, it looks like you captured the atmosphere well.
I watched as much of the livestream as I could on ADAC's YouTube channel between getting a bunch of other car related shenanigans taken care of over the day. I probably should have napped while they were down for the since they restarted racing about midnight local time. Was still an amazing race to watch, even if none of my friends enjoyed my updates on the race!
Mark those pics are just a(rt)wesome
don´t know if you got a story about it, but one of the most amazing things this year was the live commentary from Dirk Adorf while driving his stint in the race:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVjqcZSDFbA