Nürburgring Wednesday Notebook

***The 51st edition of the Nürburgring 24 kicked off with the Adenauer Racing Day event on Wednesday afternoon. Spectators packed into Adenau town center as cars and drivers assembled for a traditional preview ahead of track action starting on Thursday.

***The SP9 field at the Nürburgring 24 has been reduced to 32 cars following the withdrawal of CP Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. One of the drivers, Charles Putman, had his permit to compete stripped after he incurred a penalty for speeding in a Code 60 slow zone during the second N24 Qualifiers race. The American team then pulled its entry because of that decision.

***Four-time N24 winner Romain Dumas has joined Huber Motorsport’s Porsche lineup alongside Come Ledogar, Lars Kern and Dennis Fetzer. The Frenchman is returning to the event after one year away. Dumas’ three previous outings came with Rutronik Racing in 2021, Frikadelli Racing Team in 2019 and Manthey in 2018 but all ended in retirement.

***ADAC GT Masters race winner Ben Green has been added to the No. 28 PROsport Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Alex Brundle, who was announced to be driving for the team, has instead joined the No. 128 Muelhner Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 Cup.

***The Aston Martin from Doerr Motorsport now includes German racer Peter Posavac, alongside Ben and Phil Doerr and Aston Martin factory driver Darren Turner. Posavac did two NLS races in a Schnitzelalm Racing Mercedes-AMG earlier this season.

***Konrad Motorsport has completed its Lamborghini lineup with the signing of American driver Danny Soufi and Pavel Lefterov from Bulgaria. Soufi has raced with Konrad’s LMP3 operation in Prototype Cup Germany while Lefterov has recent GT4 experience. Both drivers are making their GT3 debuts this weekend.

***The initial Balance of Performance for the event has been adjusted since a preliminary document was published on May 8. The new BoP, issued on Wednesday, adds 15 kg to the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 along with some other adjustments.

***The two Lamborghinis in the SP9 field have also received a 1 mm air restrictor diameter increase and a 1.3-degree increase in rear wing angle. An additional 4 liters has been applied to the Ferrari 296 GT3’s maximum fuel capacity, meanwhile.

***Last year’s pole-sitter Octane 126 elected not to enter its new Ferrari due to the tight schedule for vehicle and parts supply impacting its N24 preparations. The Swiss team missed the opening three NLS rounds but plans to rejoin the Nordschleife-based series later this year. It recently tested both of its 296 GT3s at Paul Ricard.

***The fan-favorite Opel Manta has returned to the N24 after being withdrawn from last year’s race due to a workshop fire that damaged the car two weeks before the event. Driver Olaf Beckmann told Sportscar365 that the roof had to be replaced, but the other main parts including the engine survived and are on the rebuilt car this weekend.

***Audi Sport held a group photo with its four factory-supported Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs in the pit lane on Wednesday. The German manufacturer’s performance brand Audi Sport is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and has brought special liveries for the occasion.

***Audi Sport Team Car Collection’s lineup has an “underdog status” according to team manager Denis Ferlemann, who reckons the less experienced factory quartet of Gilles Magnus, Luca Engstler, Dennis Marschall and Max Hofer shouldn’t be overlooked.

***Felermann told Sportscar365: “They all have experience on the Nordschleife. Gilles Magnus couldn’t do a preparation race before, but he did a lot of laps in TCR and we gave him laps on the Fridays of NLS. I think they are not experienced like Christopher Haase, Patric Niederhauser and Chris Mies, but I think we shouldn’t underestimate them.”

***Mercedes-AMG’s head of Customer Racing Stefan Wendl has advocated for the protection of grid diversity at the N24 in the coming years. “From the motorsport fan perspective, I have some concerns about the future,” he said during a media call on Wednesday. “Because we see more and more struggles for teams to get feasible cars. This is part of the discussion in our strategic working group with the ADAC and with other manufacturers.”

***Wendl suggested that as road cars become more complex through electrification, smaller teams might struggle to build and run production-based cars in competition. “I started my racing career as a data engineer student at the Nürburgring, running very small cars, and living the dream… this is what the NLS was made for.”

***BMW M Motorsport is fielding a ‘media car’ run by Team RMG, which is also responsible for the Junior Team entry. Hillclimb specialist Joerg Weidinger is teaming up with journalists Jethro Bovingdon, Christian Gebhardt and Guido Naumann in the SP10 entry.

***Additionally, the grandson of Mini Cooper creator John Cooper is racing this weekend. Charlie Cooper is driving Bulldog Motorsport’s No. 126 Mini Cooper Works in the VT2 front-wheel-drive category.

***13 cars are already confirmed to take part in the pole-deciding Top Qualifying 2 shootout on Friday. The participant list includes Frikadelli Racing Team which took victory in the six-hour N24 Qualifiers race last month.

***The other Top Qualifying 2 slots will be determined by the results from Top Qualifying 1. The rest of the SP9 field, and the two Mercedes-AMG GT2s that are entered into SP-X, will compete for the remaining places.

***Thursday’s track action consists of two qualifying sessions, which are treated as practice runs but can be used to form the grid if Top Qualifying gets canceled. The first 105-minute session starts at 1:15 p.m. (7:15 a.m. ET) and the second session lasting three and a half hours is scheduled for 8 p.m. (2 p.m. ET).

Davey Euwema contributed to this report