Nürburgring Thursday Notebook

***Both the GT3 and TCR divisions of Audi Sport Customer Racing are in action this weekend, as the FIA WTCR series once again supports the Nürburgring 24. Audi marked the occasion with a group photograph on the pit straight.

***Phoenix Racing’s N24-winning Audi R8s from 2014 and 2019 also joined the assemblage and will spend this weekend on display in the ring°boulevard, where the 2016-winning Mercedes-AMG GT3 is also standing.

***In addition to Mercedes-AMG, Porsche set up a group picture on the Grand Prix circuit ahead of its N24 defense. The German marque has a total of 46 cars racing.

***Event organizer ADAC Nordrhein issued an updated entry list on Thursday. 135 cars are now due to take part. The No. 96 PROsport Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 that appeared on the original entry list was a spare car and has been removed. The No. 259 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport and the Opel Manta are no longer shown.

***Audi factory driver Dennis Marschall has been drafted into the No. 23 Lionspeed by Car Collection Motorsport lineup alongside Dennis Fetzer, Klaus Koch and Simon Reicher.

***Maximilian Hacklander has joined Konrad Motorsport and will share the team’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo with Michele di Martino, Axcil Jefferies and Jordan Pepper. Hacklander has driven Audi and Porsche machinery in the last two ADAC GT Masters seasons but is new to the Lamborghini.

***Thomas Neubauer, Michael Schrey and Marcel Lenerz are in the No. 78 FK Performance BMW M4 GT4, alongside Ben Green who was on the original entry list. Of note, Neubauer is set for his GT4 debut having recently plied his trade in GT3.

***Haupt Racing Team has added a fourth driver, Marvin Dienst, to its No. 6 Bilstein-backed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Dienst made his most recent N24 appearance two years ago in the SP7 class.

***Dienst is set for only his third race meeting so far this year. It is understood that the German’s upgrade from Silver to Gold status by SRO Motorsports Group, despite him remaining an FIA Silver, prevented Toksport WRT from fielding a Silver Cup crew in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup that would have involved Dienst. Toksport then switched to Porsche and refocused its GT3 program on the Nürburgring.

***Haupt Racing Team is looking to add a fourth Mercedes-AMG to its stable for the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, however this will not be in the Pro category according to team CEO Ulrich Fritz. HRT already runs three AMGs full-time in GTWC Europe Endurance Cup: two in Silver and one in Gold Cup. Mercedes-AMG is pushing for an additional third Pro entry for the July race.

***BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos says the manufacturer hasn’t yet firmed up plans to arrange more Pro entries for the 24 Hours of Spa. “We are not there yet, but it’s still on our radar,” he told Sportscar365. “We would really like to do it, but there are some facts and figures you have to get together. We just want to do the [N24] and then go to the discussions again.”

***BMW appears likely to enter its 2023 M4 GT4 car into more races as part of its pre-homologation development program: “We are in these discussions, if we can do other racing series where it fits in,” said Roos.

***Patric Niederhauser described a 10 kg BoP weight reduction for the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs as “not that much”, but the manufacturer is “not that worried” about where it sits heading into the event. “It’s always a bit blah, blah, blah for the race, but we didn’t look super strong and were not overly confident on pure pace,” he told Sportsar365. “We have a good package altogether: even the customer cars are quite competitive from a driver point of view.”

***Niederhauser explained that the lower torque of the V10 Audi engine can make it difficult for the R8s to punch onto the Dottinger Hohe and challenge in racing situations. “On pure pace, we’re going to be OK. In racing, we need to see where we end up,” he said.

***Patrick Pilet is set to drive two cars at the N24 for the first time, after a late driver lineup change saw Lars Kern shift away from the Falken Motorsports setup. Pilet told Sportscar365 that the experience is “going to be intense” but he also looks forward to doubling his chances of victory. The Frenchman won the race in 2018.

***It is understood that Ayhancan Guven was initially due to drive the No. 25 Huber Porsche, but the Turkish racer is now in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car run by Frikadelli Racing Team.

***Two-time DTM champion Timo Scheider has joined Iron Force Racing by Phoenix for the team’s effort in the all-Porsche Cup 2 class. Scheider was part of the Phoenix Racing crew that won the 2003 Nürburgring 24 with an Opel Astra V8 Coupe.

***Sheldon van der Linde said that he will be tasked with getting the No. 98 BMW M4 GT3 into Top Qualifying 2. “Tomorrow we have Top Qualifying, which we’re not through to yet,” he told Sportscar365. “We have four slots left and it is my job to get us into that. So my work really only starts tomorrow, to be honest.”

***The Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Thailand entries are helping to bring an international flavor to the race. Overseas entries have been few and far between since the coronavirus pandemic started. The pair of Toyota Corolla Altis cars have been prepared at Ring Racing’s workshop in Germany, while the people running them this weekend have flown in from southeast Asia.

***A new exhibition celebrating the life and racing career of Sabine Schmitz is opening at the ringwerk°museum this weekend. The ‘Queen of the Nürburgring – Child of the Eifel’ installation will display items from the personal and racing experiences of Schmitz, who died of cancer last year at the age of 51.

***There are some notable names in the field for the Tourenwagen Legenden support race this weekend including former DTM champions Klaus Ludwig and Kurt Thiim, and GT racing stalwart Stefan Muecke. Ludwig, who has three titles to his name, is driving a Mercedes C-Class while 1986 champion Thiim is in a Volvo 240T run by ProSport Racing. Muecke, meanwhile, is behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang DTM.

***Nürburgring 24 expert Volker Strycek, whose Opel Manta entry was withdrawn pre-event due to a workshop fire, has found a ride in the No. 87 Opel Astra OPC that is racing in the VT2 class.

***A third and final full-field qualifying practice session will take place on Friday, starting at 2:10 p.m. CEST (8:10 a.m. ET) and lasting one hour. It will be followed by the two Top Qualifying sessions that will determine the front 10 rows of the N24 grid. Top Qualifying 1 gets underway at 5:50 p.m. (11:50 a.m. ET).

***Live streaming of all sessions can be found on the Nürburgring circuit and N24 event official YouTube channels, with English and German commentary options.

Davey Euwema contributed to this report