Massive Grid, New GT3 Machinery Set for Nürburgring 24

Photo: Vincent Wouters

This year’s running of the ADAC Zurich 24h-Rennen, more commonly known as the Nürburgring 24, is set to be a classic, with a grid of 158 cars.

Out of this, no fewer than 38 GT3-spec cars will tackle the Nordschleife this weekend, including a number of cars making their N24 debuts.

ENTRY LIST: Nürburgring 24

Team WRT is back to defend its victory, with two Audi R8 LMS. Three of last year’s winners (Laurens Vanthoor, Christopher Mies and Nico Müller) are in the No. 1 car, while Edward Sandström is the only reigning champion in the No. 2 car.

Pierre Kaffer completes the No. 1 lineup, while Stuart Leonard, Robin Frijns and Frederic Vervisch round out the sister car’s squad. In total, there are nine R8 LMS cars on the grid.

Schubert Motorsport took a 1-2 victory in the most recent VLN race, with its pair of BMW M6 GT3s. Jesse Krohn, Jörg Müller and Marco Wittmann won the four hour race earlier this month, and join Augusto Farfus in the No. 18 BMW.

Schubert, ROWE Racing and Walkenhorst Motorsport all have two M6 GT3s each, while Walkenhorst will also enter a BMW Z4 GT3.

ROWE’s lineups are worth noting, with Klaus Graf, Richard Westbrook, Nicky Catsburg and Markus Palttala in the No. 22 car, and Alexander Sims, Philipp Eng, Maxime Martin and Dirk Werner in the No. 23 M6 GT3.

Among the nine Mercedes-AMG GT3s on the grid, there are entries from Black Falcon, HTP Motorsport, and others.

Manthey Racing will enter four Porsche 911 GT3 Rs. These are highlighted by the all-factory lineups in the No. 911 and No. 912 cars.

Nick Tandy, Kevin Estre, Earl Bamber and Patrick Pilet will contend in the former, while the latter will be raced by Richard Lietz, Jörg Bergmeister, Michael Christensen and Fred Makowiecki.

Meanwhile, Falken Motorsports and Frikadelli Racing will also compete in Porsches. This comes after Frikadelli originally pulled out of the race citing Balance of Performance concerns. BoP changes were made to the Porsches, as well as other GT3 entries prior to this weekend.

Aston Martin Racing is set to enter a pair of V12 Vantage GT3s. While Nicki Thiim, Darren Turner, Marco Sorensen and Pedro Lamy are in the No. 7 car, Jonny Adam, Fernando Rees, Mathias Lauda and Richie Stanaway will race in the No. 27 car.

Adam is also set to compete in the British GT round at Oulton Park this weekend.

Team Zakspeed and Nissan GT Academy Team RJN have the two Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3s in the field, while Konrad Motorsport will enter the sole Lamborghini Huracán GT3. There are also a pair of factory backed Bentley Continental GT3s for Bentley Team Abt.

While GT3 cars will battle for the overall win, the rest of the grid consists of various different classes, including small hatchbacks, cup cars, touring cars and more.

Action around the infamous Nordschleife, now with speed restrictions lifted, starts on Thursday while the race will take the green flag at 3:30 p.m. local time on Saturday.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.