This weekend sees the 40th running of the Nürburgring 24 hour race. In the build up to the big event, race organisers have released a few facts.
You can read them all after the break, but it’s the first point that has the headline numbers. There’ll be around 170 cars competing around the 25km track and driving all those cars will be some 600 drivers. If those numbers seem large, don’t forget the crowd is expected to be arond 200,000.
There’s no other race like this one anywhere in the world!
Of course, you can keep a closer eye on the Nürburgring 24 hour race at our sister site AUSringers.com, where we’ll be paying special attention to the Australian and New Zealand competitors.
40. ADAC Zurich 24h-Rennen from 17th to 20th May, 2012:
The most important 24h facts at a glance
- About 200,000 spectators, more than 170 cars that will be raced by some 600 drivers and the 25-kilometre combination of the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife turn the 24h into the biggest motor-racing event of the world.
- The course of the weekend has been altered: the Thursday action comprises the practice session and the night-qualifying session, with the second qualifying session being contested on Friday morning. And in the new Top-40-Qualifying on Friday afternoon, the fastest of the two qualifying sessions will battle it out – in individual time trials – for the grid positions at the front end of the grid.
- The race is open for touring cars and GTs. In the top categories, the ‘Balance of Performance’ makes for equal opportunities by individually defining performance relevant key specs such as minimum weight, fuel-tank capacity or the air-restrictor diameter for every vehicle model involved.
- Teams and vehicles regarded as the top favourites: Porsche 911 GT R (inter alia the 2011 winners Manthey or Falken Motorsport), BMW Z4 GT3 (inter alia the works teams BMW Team Schubert and BMW Team Vita4One), Audi R8 LMS ultra (inter alia works involvement with Team Phoenix) and Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (works drivers racing for the customer teams Heico and ROWE).
- Perfectly prepared independent teams will contest the event in the top category – inter alia – with vehicles such as the Ferrari P4/5, McLaren MP4, Ford GT and Chevrolet Corvette.
- Some of the top drivers: Frank Biela, Marcel Fässler, Markus Winkelhock (Audi), Claudia Hürtgen, Pedro Lamy, Jörg Müller (BMW), Thomas Jäger, Bernd Schneider (Mercedes-Benz), Romain Dumas, Peter Dumbreck, Marc Lieb (Porsche), Nicola Larini (Ferrari)
- Special anniversary: the ADAC Zurich 24h race will be held for the 40th time, this year. The winners of the first edition, held back in 1970, were Hans-Joachim Stuck / Clemens Schickentanz (BMW 2002).
- Support programme: British GT Championship (races on Friday and Saturday), joint race of Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, Renault Clio Cup and MINI (Saturday), ADAC 24h-Classic (Three-hour race with historic racing cars), RCN regularity run (Thursday).
Nürburgring 24 hour race timetable
Thursday, May 17
14:30–16:00 Free practice
19:30–23:30 Qualifying 1
Friday, May 18
09:35–11:35 Qualifying 2
18:00–18:50 Top 40 qualifying
Saturday, May 19
13:30–15:10 Grid formation
16:00 Start (Sunday 00:00 Australian Eastern time)
Sunday, May 20
16:00 Finish