“The Top 40 is great for drivers and great for spectators,” said Alzen, who is sharing the #19 works-supported Schubert Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 with Jorg and Dirk Muller and Dirk Adorf. “It’s very nice to do lap with no traffic, and also I think the Balance of Performance has worked very well at this race, because we have BMW, Audi and Mercedes in the top three.” Rain is expected for at least some of the 24 Hours, and Alzen added that he was confident whatever the weather brings. “We have a great wet setup and every tyre compound is perfect – it’s making the decision what tyre to run on that will the hard part.”

Mamerow didn’t seem too disappointed to be lining up second, however, and also enthused about the new shootout qualifying format. “It’s great, it’s definitely the right idea. That was my first-ever traffic-free lap of the Nordshcheife,” he laughed. “We planned to set the time on the first of the two flying laps, and set up the car and tyre pressures with that in mind, so it all went to plan.” For the race tomorrow, he says the team has set the car up so that minimal changes will be required to change between wet and dry settings. “Also, because the track here is so long, you can’t go for an extreme wet setup, in case it’s dry in one part of the track and you ruin the wet-weather tyres there.” Mamerow will be racing tomorrow with Christian Abt, Michael Ammermuller and Armin Hahne.

Third on the grid went to Sean Edwards in the #15 Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG he shares with Jeroen Bleekemolen, Manuel Metzger and Ralf Schall. He echoed Alzen’s view that the Balance of Performance regulations have done their job and that there will be little to choose between the top GT3 marques in tomorrow’s race. Indeed, third to seventh places on the grid are covered by just a second. “I think we’ll be very strong in the wet,” said Edwards. “We need to be cautious in traffic for the first 12 hours, see where we are then and decide how hard we need to push.” The #65 Hankook-Heico Mercedes and #20 works BMW will start fourth and fifth, ahead of the leading Porsche: the Manthey Racing Marc Lieb/Romain Dumas/Lucas Luhr/Richard Lietz car that set the pace in Thursday’s night qualifying. The first non-German car brand on the grid is the new Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3 of Darren Turner, Dennis Rostek and the sons of German racing legend Hans Stuck: Johannes and Ferdinand.

Words: Stephen Errity

Images: Dan Bathie

But until very close to the end of the race, the final result looked quite different. After impressing in the wet at Oulton Park, RJN Motorsport’s Jann Mardenborough marked himself out as an absolute first-rate prospect here, leading the away from pole position and building up a signifcant cushion by the time he pitted to hand over the Nissan GT-R to co-driver Chris Buncombe. But an unfortunate miscalculation of that pitstop’s length by the team led resulted in a drive-through penalty that put the Nissan back to third by the chequered flag. Although Adam had been catching Buncombe in the closing stages, it seems unlikely he would have closed him down without the drive-through penalty.

Second place went to Michael Caine and Danielle Perfetti in the Motorbase Porsche 911. Having started fourth on the grid, Perfetti was spun at the first corner by an over-eager Jody Firth in the Team WFR Ginetta, pushing them to back of the field. But a solid recovery drive by Perfetti, coupled with a storming second stint by Caine, saw the car right in the mix in the closing stages and perfectly placed to capitalise on RJN’s misfortune.

A notable absentee from the podium was Luke Hines in the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta. Making his return to the series after a break of several years, he produced an aggressive drive off the grid to take second place from Beechdean, which he held until pitting. But co-driver George Murrells had a slow getaway from the pitbox that cost vital seconds going into the second half of the race and the car would eventually come home 18th.

Oulton Park race winners Ecurie Ecosse had another strong day, but faded slightly in the second half of the race, losing a place to Matt Griffin in the Mtech Ferrari 458, which had climbed steadily through the field from its ninth-place grid slot. The Jones brothers guided their Preci-Spark Mercedes SLS AMG to sixth, benefitting from the fallout of a battle in the early stages between Jon Minshaw in the #33 Trackspeed Porsche, Jody Firth and Charles Bateman in the sole United Autosports Audi R8.

The trio ran nose-to-tail in fifth, sixth and seventh for a number of laps, before Minshaw was passed by both his arrivals. It wasn’t over yet, though: an aggressive lunge from Bateman through the first-corner complex led to contact and a spin for Firth (the United and Team WFR cars ended up 13th and 14th). At the stops, Minshaw handed his Porsche over to Tim Harvey, who showed good pace on his way to eighth overall behind the Marco Attard/Marcel Leipert Lamborghini – the GT3 Europe team making a guest appearance at this round.

The British GT Championship’s second Nurburgring race takes place tomorrow at 8:15am UK time, 9:15am European and we’ll have live coverage on Twitter (@lendurancelive) as always.

Words: Stephen Errity
Images: Dan Bathie

New qualifying format
Drivers often comment that qualifying for 24-hour races carries little importance, as the race provides so much time for the fastest cars to come to the front. But this year at the Nurburgring, the organisers have implemented a new Top 40 qualifying shootout to inject more excitement into proceedings. Each car that makes it into this session will complete two timed qualifying runs on the Nordschleife, running at ten-second intervals to ensure they don’t get held up by traffic. To further guarantee a level playing field, the order in which the Top 40 runs will be determined by a random draw. Ten of the Top 40 slots have been pre-assigned to cars that run in the German VLN series, which holds shorter-duration races at the Nordschleife throughout the season. These include challengers for overall victory in the 24 Hours such as the Black Falcon, Rowe Racing and Hankook-Heico Mercedes SLS entries; the Phoenix Racing Audi R8s; the Team Schubert and Team Vita4One BMW Z4s, plus the Falken Motosports and Timbuli Racing Porsche 911s. The remainder of the grid outside the Top 40 will be based on times set during Thursday night and Friday afternoon’s regular qualifying sessions.

Heidfeld and Ludwig team up at the Ring
One is a recent mover from F1, the other is a German touring-car and endurance-racing legend: Nick Heidfeld and Klaus Ludwig will be joining forces in the Gemballa Racing McLaren MP4-12C GT3, along with Heidfeld’s old Formula 3 team-mate Sascha Berth and Hendrik Vieth. We caught up with Heidfeld in the busy Gemballa Racing garage during Thursday night’s qualifying. Smiling from ear to ear, he said the lower speed of the GT car compared to the F1 and LMP1 machinery he has been driving has taken some getting used to, but that he absolutely loves driving the Nordschleife in any car. Ludwig says their aim is simply to finish the race – but adds that if they do so, he expects them to be running strongly in the overall top ten. “Endurance race? Forget it,” he laughs. “Today the 24 Hours is a sprint race from start to finish. There are 30 top cars and they are all very reliable and stable. So you have to go flat out right from the start.” We’ll be keeping a close eye on this car’s progress throughout the weekend.

Spa and Nurburgring race organisers to award new 24-Hour Trophy
The German ADAC and Belgian RACB motoring clubs, organisers of the Nurburgring and Spa 24-Hour races respectively, have come together to offer a special trophy to three highest-finishing GT3 teams on aggregate that enter both events. The 24-Hour Trophy presentation will take place immediately after the Spa 24 Hours podium ceremony, on July 29.

What does a lap of the Nordschleife involve for the tyres?
The Nurburging Nordschleife is a legendarily demanding circuit for drivers. But what about the four circles of black rubber connecting them to its hallowed tarmac? Just how hard do the tyres work on a lap of this unique track? Dunlop Motorsport, tyre supplier to much of the field, including many of the top-flight teams, gave some insight: At Aremberg, about a quarter of the way around the 25km lap, there’s an extremely heavy braking area. The 3G compression of Fuchsrohe sees the tyres having to withstand three times their normal load, while at Breidscheid, the uneven surfact tests the tyres to the limit. Through the banked Karussel corner, the tyres experience increased lateral load and sidewall pressure, while at Pflanzgarten the whole weight of the car presses down on the rubber after becoming airborne. On the long Dottingher Hohe straight, the shoulder of the tyre comes under stress due to the relatively small contact patch experienced at the Nurburging. This is due to the high camber run by most cars.

Thursday’s pace-setters
With Thursday night’s mammoth four-hour qualifying session in the bag, the #11 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 driven by the highly fancied line-up of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas, Lucas Luhr and Richard Lietz sits at the top of the timesheets with a time of 8:27.671. The Mamerow Racing Audi R8 trailed them by just over two seconds, with a shorter gap back to the third-place Audi Sport Team Phoenix R8 of Marc Basseng, Christopher Haase, Frank Stippler and Marcus Winkelhock. The #18 Team Vita4One car is currently the fastest BMW Z4 in the field, while the new GT3 Aston Martin Vantage V12 is showing strongly in fifth place thanks to the efforts of factory drivers Stefan Mucke and Tomas Enge. The Gemballa Racing McLaren with Nick Heidefeld and Klaus Ludwig at the wheel was ninth – confirming the drivers’ earlier predictions of top-10 pace. Many teams used the extended qualifying to work on race set-up, however, so tomorrow morning’s two-hour session could see significant changes to the order.

Words: Stephen Errity

Image: Dan Bathie

Qualifying One

Mardenborough recorded his pole time of 1:43.793 early into what would be a frantic session, with no less than five manufacturers qualifying in the top five places.

By the midpoint, Switzerland’s Danielle Perfetti (Motorbase Porsche) was close behind Mardenborough, and Andrew Howard in the Beechdean Aston Martin V12 Vantage was third. Winner last time out, Alasdair McCaig, looked set for a quick time and duly delivered with a 1:45.122, further proving the prowess of his Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4.

Ginetta came to the Nürburgring with a number of changes for its two GT3 teams, Optimum Motorsport and Team WFR; making the most of these were talented Brits, LukeHines and Jody Firth. Hines suffered a broken gearstick during the first part of his fifteen minute session, but his team managed to fix it and send him out to post two quick laps that saw him finish sixth overall with a 1:45.293. Firth was rarely out of the top three and duly finished third, splitting Howard’s Aston Martin and Perfetti’s Porsche.

Quietly getting on with proceedings were David Jones (Preci-Spark Mercedes AMG SLS), Charles Bateman (United Autosports Audi R8 LMS), and Duncan Cameron, who finished as the top Ferrari in ninth. Jones and his twin brother, David pushed hard in their SLS, and Bateman struggled to break the top six, despite giving his all on the 4.6km GP circuit.

Rounding out the top ten was Freddie Hetherington in the JMH prepared Nissan GT-R, who struggled to get heat into his front tyres throughout the session.

After a difficult free practice session where his Ginetta G50 suffered technical difficulties and a puncture, Jody Fannin (Team WFR) was hoping for some good luck in qualifying. Luckily for the teenager, his opportunity for pole was not subjected to anymore issues, but it certainly wasn’t straightforward.

Italian team, Nova Race led the field initially through Marco Cassera, with Jota Sport’s Mark Ticehurst a tenth behind. Elsewhere, Zoe Wenham (CenturyMotorsport Ginetta G50) and APO Sport’s James May were exchanging times with sole Lotus Sport UK runner, Sailesh Bolisetti.

Welsh teenager, Jake Rattenbury qualified 22nd overall after switching to race with CWS 4×4 for the weekend in the GTC class. Rattenbury’s regular team, Stark Racing pulled out earlier in the week citing technical problems with its G55. Having got some clear track, Fannin returned with a sensational lap of 1:51.912, positioning directly him on the tail of the GT3 runners.

With minutes counting down on the clock it looked like Cassera and Ticehurst would join Fannin at the top of the GT4 class, however Wenham improved her time by almost three seconds to displace Cassera from second, a sensational achievement in her third GT race; this left Mowle in the Optimum prepared Ginetta third, Ticehurst fourth, and May fifth.

Rounding out the class was Bolisetti’s Lotus which was sporting a JPS style black and gold livery this weekend; L’Espace Bienvenu’s BMW suffered technical difficulties and it didn’t take part in either qualifying session.

Qualifying Two

With thebest of the day’s heat now beginning to disappear, drivers flooded the track as they sought a fast lap. Laying down the marker from the get-go was Jonny Adam in the Beechdean Aston Martin. Denmark’s fastest export, Allan Simonsen was hot on his heels, proving the Ferrari could provide a challenge this weekend. Motorbase’s Michael Caine and Team WFR’s Riki Christodoulou were behind Simonsen, and within 1.5 seconds of Adam’s time.

Trackspeed, noticeable by their absence from the top ten in the day’s first qualifying session were back with a vengeance; Richard Westbrook struck first blood, putting the Porsche second, before Caine struck back.

MTECH’s Matt Griffin had now had an opportunity to get a clear track and posted a time good enough for fifth. However, Griffin’s joy was to be short-lived as Joe Osborne (Trackspeed) jumped the MTECH car and the Ferrari of Simonsen too with a lap of 1:43.047.

Elsewhere George Murrells pushed his Optimum Ginetta G55 to 14th, before being relegated to sixteenth by Marcel Leipert in the Rhino’s Leipert Lamborghini LP600+ and Godfrey Jones’ SLS.

On the up was Alex Buncombe, Mardenborough’s RJN team-mate was having little joy, but his fortunes would change with precious little time to spare. As the clock counted down, Buncombe rolled out two laps, both improvements on his previous best,moving his GT-R to tenth overall, where he would remain until the flag.

By this point, Tandy, in familiar surroundings, took pole with a lap of 1:41.691, making the most of his track time. Adam, Westbrook and Caine had nothing left to give and will start tomorrow’s race from second, third and fourth respectively.

Griffin narrowly kept ahead of the pacey Osborne, and Simonsen held onto seventh by six hundredths from the third Trackspeed car of Harvey. Early frontrunner Christodoulou was happy with ninth, in a much-improved Ginetta G55.

There was little drama in GT4 in the second qualifying session. With the temperature now significantly lower than twenty minutes prior, drivers were taking two laps to produce a hot lap. Making light work of this challenge was the experienced sports car hand, Warren Hughes (Team WFR). Hughes chose his moment and made it count, having watched Alex Osborne in the APO Sport car top the times initially.

With theLotus now in the hands of Phil Glew, times tumbled, despite the former BTCCdriver having never driven the circuit before. However, Glew’s best wasn’t good enough this time around and he settled for second in class.

Osborne will line-up third, some 1.7 seconds ahead of Optimum’s Welsh youngster, Ryan Rafcliffe and fellow Welshman, Dominic Evans (Century Motorsport).

Foglio in the Nova Race Ginetta and Mildenhall’s Mazda were separated by over a second, and will line up sixth and seventh in class respectively. Colin White, in his CWS 4X4 GTC Ginetta was an impressive twentieth overall.

Tomorrow’s race is the first of two 60-minute sprint races this weekend, and it begins at 16:30 CET. Live text commentary is available on Twitter, and both races this weekend will feature on Radio Le Mans.

Quotes:

Jann Mardenborough, Pole Position, GT3 – Race Three:
“It was a difficult lap to do, but I dragged it out of the car. We made a lot of changes over practice, trying new stuff and gradually got quicker and quicker. Going into qualifying we felt the car was better than at Monza and Oulton, the RJN guys worked really hard and we’re thrilled to have our first ‘proper’ pole position. I won’t lie I definitely raced on GT5 before coming here in the wet, and the dry in a GT-R to get my eye in. It definitely helps.”

Jody Fannin, Pole Position, GT4 – Race Three:
“We’re seriously happy considering the diff went and we had a puncture, but we’re really looking forward to the races. Its an amazing atmosphere this weekend, its unreal. I can’t believe how many people are here for a Thursday! It’ll be great to race here on Saturday.”

Warren Hughes, Pole Position, GT4 – Race Four:
“That was great! It was a bit of a tricky session because of a problem earlier in the day meant I didn’t get any running in free practice. I’ve also never raced on this configuration, so it was very scrappy trying to figure that out with the pressure of qualifying and the traffic. I feel there’s another half a second to be had there, and we’re in good shape for the race. We’re happy with whatever the weather provides, we were competitive in Oulton in the wet, and despite the good pace the Lotus has in the wet, Jody and I are a good pairing.”

British GT press release

l’endurance magazine, May 2012, is now ready to view.  In the issue this month is it’s bursting with driving talent. We’ve got interviews with Karun Chandhok and Nick Heidfeld - plus Mark Blundell reflects on his sportscar career, including his amazing 1990 qualifying lap for Nissan.

Download the PDF here.

You haven’t raced in Europe before, you haven’t raced at Spa before and you haven’t raced in a GT car before, so this must be a new and very exciting experience?

“Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Spa is one amazing racetrack. It truly is a special place and it’s become my new favourite road course straight away. I like some of the road courses we run in the US – Sonoma, the Glen, Road Atlanta and Sebring – but Spa is incredible. I love Eau Rouge, it’s a fun turn, and also the last high-speed turn, Blanchimont.”

How is the GTE Ferrari 458 to drive?

“It’s a very different experience to the Cup car. Everything’s different, but the braking is probably the biggest thing. It’s a lighter car – I don’t think the brakes are necessarily better, it’s just the car is much lighter. We actually have bigger brakes on Cup cars, but we have a lot more car to stop, so it doesn’t stop quite as well. The stopping power, the cornering speed and the lightness of the Ferrari are all very impressive.”

How have you found the traffic in sportscar racing?

“It’s the hardest part, learning how to manage that. I’ve never had to watch my mirrors before – I’ve never had to spot for myself, actually. Normally I have a spotter telling me if someone’s coming on the inside or outside, so it’s a whole new experience.”

Are you looking forward to Le Mans?

“Yeah, I’m very excited. I’ve always wanted to race there, I’ve always heard great things about the track and the race itself is very prestigious. But from a driving standpoint, Spa is incredible. I’m really thankful I had the opportunity to drive here first, as I didn’t realise how big an issue the traffic would be. Racecars are racecars, but the traffic is all new: even cars in your own class can be at a very different speed than you. Everyone’s within a couple of tenths in NASCAR, give or take, and you have an idea where everybody’s braking, who’s coming and when they’re coming. So being here first will help me a lot for Le Mans.”

How have your co-drivers Rob Kauffman and Rui Aguas helped you settle in?

“I’ve been working them to understand where’s the best place to let the faster prototype guys pass – when do I check my mirrors and not check my mirrors. A couple of times when I wasn’t even in traffic, I still missed the turn-in, because I was looking in the mirror, not where I was going.”

Are you comfortable in the car and happy with your setup?

“We’re still working on it a little bit: we were fighting a bit of understeer yesterday and we’re losing the rear a little bit today coming out of corners. Yesterday, we had traction-control issues, too, and we had to turn it off. When we thought we had it fixed, I came in and the team asked ‘what did you think?’ I was like, shit, I don’t know, it’s the first time I’ve ever had traction control! I think it’s working!”

How do you find driving with the traction control? Do you prefer to have more control over the power or does it help you do other things?

“You can definitely stay on the gas more. Let me run a race first, I guess: I’ve only made four laps with it in my life, ever, so I don’t really have a good idea if I prefer it or not. In general, I like having 900hp and no traction control, I have to really drive the car then. This notion of coming out of a corner and standing on the throttle seems like cheating to me, but at the same time it’s a lot of fun. It’s kind of a balance: once I figure it out, learn how to take advantage of it and really push the car further to the limit using it, I’ll probably enjoy it more.”

Interview: Stephen Errity

Image: Jake Yorath

They almost led from the start, but rivals Dyson Racing jumped the green flag. They immediately gave the position back, but it was just the start of Dyson’s problems. Penalties and mechanical problems combined with an admitted lack of pace at the Monterrey circuit to put them 20 laps down at the finish. They will doubtless feel their loss in the points standings for the rest of the season.

The Lola-Mazda’s absence opened the door for a fantastic race-long battle for second between both Level 5 HPD ARX 03b’s and Conquest Endurance’s Morgan-Nissan. The Conquest car missed qualifying but was battling with its classmates within minutes of the start thanks to superb driving by Danish software designer David Heinemeier-Hansson.

The Level 5’s, both manned by Franck Montagny and Scott Tucker plus Luis Diaz in the 95 and Christophe Bouchut in the 055, both fought with Heinemeier-Hansson and his teammates Martin Plowman and Antonio Pizzonia, but the 055 broke first, literally. Team owner Tucker still had his other car to drive to second place overall, but it was the stricken Honda that was designated to score points in the ALMS. The Tucker/Bouchut/Diaz car won LMP2, finishing second overall as well.

Dempsey Racing’s new Lola-Judd project, complete with team addition Jonny Cocker, ended in the sand with minutes remaining after experiencing costly mechanical problems.

Corvette took the win in GT for the second race running

The GT battle again electrified, almost every car leading at one point or another. But it was the reliable-as-ever Corvettes that again finished best, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner winning the class ahead of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen, who got his second place courtesy of a late, questionable overtake that shoved Montagny’s HPD almost off track and got his Corvette under Bill Auberlen’s BMW. Auberlen stayed where he was put by the ‘Vette until the checkered flag. The other, #56 BMW arrived fourth.

Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek did well to get their ESM Ferrari into the top five.

Other notable GT performances include Falken’s brief class lead, and Aston Martin’s early success that evaporated in the pits, in yet another promising but ultimately disappointing performance for the team’s new Vantage program.

The LMPC class came down to the final corners, with Colin Braun ultimately prevailing, specifically around the outside of Turn 10. His CORE Autosports team filled positions one and three at race’s end. The red RSR Racing car split them.

The ALMS teams will now take a nearly two-month long summer break to visit the 24 Hours of Le Mans if they wish, and will return to the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park.

Words: Jack Evans

Images: Nick Busato