FALKEN ENDS INCIDENT-PACKED N24 IN THE TOP TEN
The 991 GT3 R fielded by Falken Motorsports concluded this year’s daylong race at the Nürburgring with a place among the top ten finishers. Sven Müller, Marco Seefried, Patrick Pilet and Jaxon Evans finished the fiftieth edition of the Eifel classic in ninth place with the no.33 911. The GT3 R campaigned by Huber Motorsport and driven by Lars Kern, Nico Menzel, Klaus Rader and Joachim Thyssen secured eleventh place.
The event marked the fiftieth 24 Hours of Nürburgring and took off at 4pm on Saturday 28th May in sunny conditions and in front of 230,000 spectators. Early on, two 991 GT3 Rs treated fans to an impressive show — in just ninety minutes, works driver, Kévin Estre, catapulted the no.1 Manthey-racing RSR (the defending champion and a Porsche known the world over as ‘Grello’ on account of its bright green and yellow livery) from P36 to first place. Estre’s teammate and fellow countryman, Fréderic Makowiecki, maintained the position before handing the car to Laurens Vanthoor.
In one of the more memorable scenes from the race, the 2018 Le Mans class winner smashed into the barriers at the end of the Döttinger Höhe straight in a duel with his brother, Dries Vanthoor, who was jostling for position in a Phoenix Audi. The two cars made contact, spinning the 911 GT3 R across the track, where it bounced from one side to the other against crash barriers before grinding to a halt. “Next dinner in the Vanthoor household? I wanna be there!” joked Audi’s Raffaele Marciello.
“It’s painful to be this open in public, but the reason behind the crash was simply that I was racing my brother,” explained a sheepish Laurens after Grello was taken out of the race. “My emotions took over and my brain stopped working. We’ve been competing since we were kids, never backing off and rather breaking a leg than losing to one another. Unfortunately, this competitiveness took the upper hand. I accept my behaviour was unprofessional.”
Concluding by stating this was “a black day in my career”, his fortunes were totally in contrast to those of his brother, who went on to take overall victory in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2, which he shared with Robin Frijns, Kelvin van der Linde and Frederic Vervisch.
Despite light rain showers and a brief hail storm, action among the top fifteen remained uneventful until an hour before the end of the race. Once again, Porsche was the focus of attention. On the approach to Döttinger Höhe, Norwegian driver, Dennis Olsen, hit the barriers. For the KCMG 911, which was in ninth place at the time, this incident brought an early end. In the final phase, the Falken and Huber teams brought their no.33 and no.25 entries safely over the remaining laps and concluded the race in positions nine and eleven.
“All in all, it was an extreme race,” said Sven Müller after the event. “I had the honour of driving the first stint. The formation lap in front of many thousands of fans around the track gave me goosebumps. It felt like being in front of the grandstands in a football stadium. Things turned crazy in the first two stints, though. Most of our competitors drove as if it were the last hour of racing. Sensibly, we kept out of any trouble. Changeable conditions made things exciting again, but we were already a lap down on the leaders. There was nothing we could do, which is why we concentrated on bringing our 911 home to the end of the race.”
For full event results, visit the official 24 Hours of Nürburgring website at 24h-rennen.de.