We’ve sat through half of a beautiful day and half of a very wet, very foggy day for the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Now we finally have a winner after an insane last-hour battle that happened after a long red flag for fog: the No. 912 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Manthey Racing.
[Full disclosure: I was Porsche’s guest for the Nürburgring 24 Hours wherein they foot the bill for lodging, travel and food. I bothered them all weekend to send the 919 Tribute for a flying lap, and they didn’t (as of this writing).]
Manthey’s home base is just down the road in Meuspath, so to say this is a home race for them is a colossal understatement. I could probably hit their building with a chunk of currywurst from the main straight if I found the right launch-contraption among the crowd. (You know someone’s built one here.) Yet Manthey was only able to finish with one of their two cars. Their No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R ate wall and retired before the mid-point of the race.
Only two other cars finished on the lead lap in this attrition-heavy race. The No. 4 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3, which lost the lead with only an hour left in the race, went through in second place, and its sister No. 5 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 came in third, jumping ahead of the Aston Martin Racing No. 007 in the last hour.
The No. 4 dropped further behind with a slightly long final pit stop in the last hour, though, which helped the No. 912 stay ahead in the lead.
Porsches took the first three starting positions of the race this weekend by setting a new lap record with Manthey Racing’s No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R. But the 911s and the Mercedes were back and forth for the lead for nearly the whole race, which made it a highly entertaining watch.
Full results should be available here soon.