Nürburgring Thursday Notebook

***Porsche organised its traditional pre-event group photo on Wednesday evening, held at the Hyundai Kurve at the end of the Grand Prix circuit (pictured above). Similarly to last year, the German brand is the best presented on the Nürburgring 24 grid as 53 cars (including seven in SP9) come from the Stuttgart brand.

***A Scherer Sport PHX spokesperson told Sportscar365 that the driveshaft failure on the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R during Qualifying 1 inflicted further internal damage to the engine, with the resulting repairs taking most of the rest of Thursday to be completed. The car returned to the circuit during Qualifying 2.

***DTM driver Timo Glock is no longer part of the lineup for the No. 59 Doerr Motorsport McLaren Artura Trophy Evo. The German has been replaced by former Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy winner Mike David Ortmann.

***Mercedes-AMG head of customer racing Stefan Wendl revealed that the two Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos used by GetSpeed Performance this weekend have been carried over from last year’s race.

***Wendl told Sportscar365: “They’ve only done eight hours last year. So we asked, ‘Well, what can we do with it?’ Sometimes we use them for the 24 Hours of Spa or [put] them up for sale. But at this stage we decided to [carry out] a small rebuild and keep them for the next N24. So that’s why they are here now for the second race and I hope they will now do the [full] 24 hours.

***The German also explained that Mercedes-AMG’s run plan for the opening on-track sessions has been simpler this year as it did not need to focus on qualifying runs because all of its SP9 cars (both GetSpeed entries and the No. 11 SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm car) are locked into Top Qualifying at the start of the weekend, something that had not been the case in previous years.

***Wendl said: “There are different ways to qualify the cars for the Top Qualifying in the prep races, based on the pure theoretical performance of the qualifying laps, based on the best average top five laps in the race from one single stint. So it’s a quite complex system and I have to say we tried it also in the previous years but it was not easy to get access and it’s also depending on the number of Pro cars entered because only a certain percentage gets the qualifying up front.”

***Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe vice-chairman Kazuki Nakajima and team principal Kamui Kobayashi were both spotted in the N24 paddock on Thursday. The Japanese marque has a number of cars entered in this year’s race, including a two-car Toyota Gazoo Rookie Racing effort that will see Toyota Motor Corporation chairman Akio Toyoda and his son Daisuke compete in the No. 109 Toyota GR Yaris.

***Toyoda, racing under the pseudonym “Morizo,” has competed at the N24 multiple times and returns for the first time since 2019. Notably, the ‘Gazoo’ in Toyota Gazoo Racing has its origins in the ‘Team Gazoo’ name that was used as the entry for a pair of Toyota Altezzas in 2007, one of which was driven by Toyoda during his event debut. The No. 109 and No. 110 starting numbers on this year’s Rookie Racing cars are also identical to that year.

***Manthey EMA driver Kevin Estre predicted that high ambient temperatures forecast for the race will have a “big impact” on the race, indicating it could create conditions that haven’t been seen for several years.

***Estre told Sportscar365: “[In Qualifying 1] we were already above 40 degrees [track temperature], which we don’t see often on the Nordschleife. And on Sunday it’s gonna be 29 degrees in the air with sun, so it’s gonna be much hotter even. It’s going to be a challenge for sure, because we have a lot of kilometers on this track, of course we know the tire, we know everything, but this type of temperature we don’t have often. To be honest, I think the last time we drove with these temperatures for many stints was probably four or five years ago.”

***Additionally, Estre revealed that he is set to race a Porsche Cup car for the first time since a one-off appearance in Porsche Carrera Cup France in 2014 later this year. The Frenchman will compete in the 24 Hours of Zolder, joining an NGT Racing entry that is set to include Lars Kern as well as fellow FIA World Endurance Championship drivers Tom van Rompuy and Jonny Edgar. Notably, Estre’s Porsche Hypercar teammate Laurens Vanthoor is tackling the race in a separate car, teaming up with SUPER GT driver Bertrand Baguette.

***ADAC Nordrhein published a slightly revised Balance of Performance table on Thursday, giving the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 more rake. No other changes were made.

***HWA announced on Thursday that it will field a two-car SP-X effort in next year’s N24 with a racing version of the HWA EVO, a limited-edition production car that is marketed as a modernized and upgraded version of the Mercedes-Benz 190E Evo II that became an icon of touring car competition in the 1980s and 90s. The entry will be run by HWA’s in-house crew ‘with backgrounds in DTM and other motorsport series,’ while three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Klaus Ludwig and Roland Asch are the development drivers.

***Martin Marx, HWA CEO, said: “Motorsport is in our DNA, and consequently in that of the HWA EVO. As the first road car to bear the HWA name, it was clear to us that we should further develop the project in line with this heritage.”

***HWA has stated that its driver lineup as well as “appropriate modifications in performance, weight and safety system” will be revealed at a later date.

***While reigning SP9 Pro-Am winners Lionspeed GP are not competing in this year’s N24, the German squad has a presence at the event through a two-car display at ring°boulevard. The team is showing off a pair of race-winning Audis: the 2014 R8 LMS Ultra driven by Christopher Haase, Christian Mamerow, Rene Rast and Markus Winkelhock and the Team WRT-enterd R8 LMS that was taken to victory by Vanthoor, Christopher Mies, Edward Sandstroem and Nico Mueller.

***As has become tradition, live coverage of all N24 sessions is available on the official YouTube channel. The English-language commentary team for the event consists of John Hindhaugh, Joe Bradley, Ben Constanduros, Peter Snowdon, Bruce Jones, Peter Mackay and Jonny Palmer.

***On-track running on Friday is headlined by Top Qualifying for SP9 contenders at 1:20 p.m. CEST (7:20 a.m. EST), which in a change to previous years is taking place before the third and final regular qualifying practice session for all runners held at 4:15 p.m. CEST (10:15 a.m. EST).

***As part of the buildup for Top Qualifying, organizers will hold a draw to determine the starting order for the shootout on Friday morning at 10:45 a.m. CEST (4:45 a.m. EST), which will be streamed live on the official N24 Facebook page.