Nurburgring 24-hours 2006
(17-18th June 2006)
 

10th Place Overall - and 2nd in class

Photography by Ian Haynes-Bowers, Michael Kokott (ADAC), Günter Kortmann, Matthias Loewe (ADAC) and Colin Marsh
 

A strong 10^th place finish at last weekend’s Nurburgring 24-hours (June 17-18^th) has erased the disappointment of failing this year to race at Le Mans . 

The Porsche showing the dirt of a 24-hour race - and a missing indicator lens!

For this famous annual event I shared a 2001 model Porsche 996 GT3 Cup with three German drivers - the car's owner Wolfgang Dess, the team owner, Michael Bonk and Thomas Dill. We covered over 3400 kilometres and finished second in the SP6 class. As has become customary, my car carried on its roof Hong Kong’s bauhinia flag design. Over 200,000 spectators watched the event which was shown on live television.

Thomas Dill (left) with Wolfgang and Mrs Dess.

The bauhinia flag visible (bottom left) on the roof of the car in the crowded pit lane, pre-race.

The Nurburgring 24-hour race takes place each year on a 25.4 kilometres circuit which combines the 5 kilometres or so of modern track (as used for the European Formula One Grand Prix) with the original Nordschleife (North Loop) which was used for F1 until Niki Lauda’s almost fatal accident there in 1976. There is a 300 metre difference in altitude during the lap and descents and climbs of 11% and 16% respectively.  

By contrast, Le Mans is almost flat – and it’s only 13 kilometres in length. And there are only 50 cars in each Le Mans 24-hours race whilst 220 started the Nurburgring (and 141 were classified as finishers).

The Nordschleife has serious elevation changes (and not much run off!).

The clean state of the car shows this photo was taken in practice - during the race there's no time to clean anything but the windscreen!

This year’s Nurburgring 24-hours had in it more Porsche factory drivers (three of the eight in the world) than there were at Le Mans (just one). They won the race, actually. There was also a two-car team from Maserati which included top sports car racers and ex-F1 driver Jacques Laffite. Another ex-F1 driver and Le Mans winner, Hans Stuck was driving a BMW.
 

Fans on the track as the cars make their way out on the warming-up lap

Wolfgang getting a haircut (courtesy of Mrs Bonk) before the race!

I took over and did the next stint. At the end we were 14^th. Then Thomas Dill did his run. Sadly he was driven into by another car which caused some bodywork damage and a puncture. Driving slowly back to the pits, most of the way around the long, long track, cost us about 10 minutes. Once the car was repaired we were down in 35^th position.

This shot shows the damage to the rear of the car - we were lucky to lose only one lap

Night time at the 'Ring!

The Manthey Porsche leads through the night.

Throughout the night we made up positions so that when I got into the car for the last time, at noon on Sunday, we were 11^th overall.

I took 10^th place on track, which was nice, and handed the car over to Wolfgang for the final 90-minutes.

Wolfgang extended our lead to 45 seconds at the end.

Only 141 of the 220 starters made it across the finish line - 10th place is a great achievement.

The excellent Bonk Motorsport crew go to work changing the tyres and refilling the fuel tank.

At the end of the stint - Matthew has a bad hair day!

The sunrise stint on Sunday morning was great fun apart from the blinding light - particularly when rushing into the Foxhole in 6th gear!

This shot shows me closing in on and about to take 10th place from number 32.

The  front of 200,000 spectators the 34^th Nurburgring 24-hours was won by the Manthey Racing team after 25 years of trying. The team benefited from Porsche factory support and the loan of three works drivers: Timo Bernhard, Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller. The all German quartet was completed by DTM star Marcel Tiemann.

Olaf Manthey (left) with Lucas Luhr.

Manthey’s closest challenger and the eventual runners-up was Alzen Motorsport. They had decided to use an H-pattern rather than sequential gear shift believing it would prove more reliable. The Manthey car did suffer from a clutch problem towards the end of the 24-hours but the sequential gearbox held together and proved, perhaps, faster. Both the winner and runner-up broke the all time distance record for the event.

The H&R Porsche 997 of Jürgen and Uwe Alzen, Klaus Ludwig and Christian Abt

Former Grand Prix driver Johnny Cecotto was driving an ethanol fuelled Subaru and, like Stuck, was a racing dad – Cecotto junior was in the Formula 3 race run before the 24-hours (and which was won by Chinese driver Tung Ho-pin).

Popping out of the Karussell.

Wolfgang leaps through Pflanzgarten

Wolfgang crosses the finish line to the cheers of the exhausted Bonk Motorsport team ...

.... and then enjoys a refreshing bottle of cold water - poured over him!

The Manthey team drivers - with a pretty impressive trophy

The results showing our 10th place finish

... and 2nd in the SP6 class

These are the lap times for the 136 laps we completed during the race. My laps are underlined in red.

Collecting our trophies for 2nd in the SP6 Class. From left: Wolfgang Dess, Michael Bonk, me, Thomas Dill.