The winners of the 39th running of the ADAC Zurich 24h Race this weekend are Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg/ Germany) / Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) / Timo Bernhard (Dittweiler/ Germany) and Romain Dumas (Switzerland) in their Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. In front of the 250,000 spectators at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife, the drivers around team manager Olaf Manthey from Bonn/ Germany had exciting battles with dozens of works and works supported teams and finally dominated them all. After 156 laps (3,958.968 km) they finished the probably fastest 24h race ever first ahead of the works team of BMW Motor-sport in second place. Jörg Müller (Monaco) / Augusto Farfus (Brazil) / Uwe Alzen (Betzdorf/ Germany) / Pedro Lamy (Portugal) in their BMW M3 GT thus just barely missed winning the title again. Into third place finished Marc Basseng (Neusalza/ Germany) / Marcel Fässler (Switzerland) / Andrea Piccini (Italy) and Frank Stippler (Bad Münstereifel/ Germany) who managed to repeat last year’s success in the Audi R8 LMS of the Pheonix team which is based at the Nürburgring. Comprehensive information and results of the classical long distance race are also available in the internet under www.24h-rennen.de.
After a dramatic running over the first two third of the race distance, the later winners could take it easier from Sunday morning and just concentrate onto continuing at top speed and secure their positions until the finish. The fans on the full grandstands and in the spectator areas around the Ring saw an exciting first part with many changes in the lead, followed by a tough competition at high speed in the night. The later victory of the Manthey drivers was prepared in this phase in moving ahead from the competitors with a series of a fast laps. “This was probably the most difficult 24h Race for us”, admitted team manager Manthey, “as the competition was absolutely close. Our strategy was to rely on our own performance and not to get too much involved in fights for positions. This worked out well. We were able to pull off in the night with fast and constant lap times, equally set by all of the four drivers – and this advance secured our success. I am totally happy for the whole team which has worked harder than ever to gain this victory.” BMW Motorsport, too, was very delighted. “This is the highlight of the season for our team which for me represents a crowing finale of the professional career”, was the summary of MNW Motor Sport Director Dr. Mario Theissen. “We have won here last year as we had less incidents than the other competitors – this year, it was the other way round. You experience such a lot of uncertainties in this race that you cannot plan a victory in advance.”
Stuck: Farewell from racing
Hans-Joachim “Striezel” Stuck celebrated an emotional farewell from motor sports as active race driver this weekend. With his victory at the first running of the 24h Race in 1970, Stuck who lives in Austria started an exceptional career as race driver which now finished at the same place: The darling of the public, together with his sons Johannes and Ferdinand as well as Dennis Rostek (Porta Westfalica/ Germany) competed in the race with a Lamborghini LG 600. The ex-champion was fairly happy with the 15th place. “I enjoyed this weekend really very much”, said Stuck with a smile in his face. “The greatest thing for me was that Ferdi set the fastest time of us all. He has also done a brilliant job during the night. This is the signal for me that I can relax now and hand over the baton to my sons.” Stuck hereby insisted on completing the last race laps himself. “I was really looking forward to these last race laps and wanted to enjoy every single lap.”
Organiser highly satisfied
“This 24h Race was a true long-distance thriller”, said a happy Clerk of the Course, Walter Hornung, after the finish. “Three makes in the top four, the fights amongst the top teams was exciting and well-balanced. This confirms our intensive efforts to provide a balance of performance as great as possible with our Regulations.” It was until a few hours before the race start on Saturday afternoon only that the experts had worked on the performance parameters stipulated in the Balance of Performance and granted a weight advantage for the GT3 cars. “Cars from three different classes finally made it on the podium, including SP7, E1-XP2 and SP9 GT3. It was hardly possible for us to provide a better balance”, was the summary of the Clerk of the Course. “I am, however, also very much delighted about the fantastic backdrop and the many fans celebrating for days here at the Ring despite the rain and the cold.”
