Aussies falter as Porsche wins Nurburgring 24
Porsche took its sixth N24 victory with its #18 entry
Porsche has won the 39th running of the Nurburgring 24 Hour as the three all-Australian crews failed to finish.
The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Lucas Luhr took victory by less than five minutes after completing 156 laps of the famed Nordschleife.
The green and gold machine, which led the race for more than 16 hours, ran a largely trouble-free race – save for a refuelling issue that cost the car almost a minute.
BMW’s factory entry of Augusto Farfus, Jörg Müller, Uwe Alzen and Pedro Lamy was good enough for second place, ahead of the first of the Audi R8 LMSs crewed by Marc Basseng, Marcel Fassler, Andrea Piccini and Frank Stippler, which took out the GT3 class.
Audis also took fourth and fifth places outright, ahead of the first of the Mercedes-Benz SLS entries in sixth.
Of the all-Australian crews, it was the BMW M3 E36 that completed the greatest distance, with Richard Gartner, Ray Stubber and Paul Stubber combining for 80 laps of the ‘Green Hell.’
The ex-V8 Supercar Holden Commodore of Mal Rose, Peter Leemhuis and Damien Flack retired after just 28 laps, while the event was a complete disaster for Clint Harvey, Brett Niall, Malcolm Niall and Mark Pilatti, whose Seat Leon Supercopa was forced out after Lap 1.