Nürburgring Saturday Notebook

***SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel held a meeting with team principals that was mainly about next year’s Jeddah 1000km, including logistics proposals and anticipated costs. The idea is for the 2024 Endurance Cup season finale in Saudi Arabia to cost no more than a European round, courtesy of subsidies.

***It is understood that the sea freight journey to Jeddah will depart from Genoa in Italy and that the total trip is expected to take just under one month.

***CSA Racing changed the engine of its Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II after a failure during Free Practice. The French squad did not take part in Pre-Qualifying but was allowed to perform a shakedown lap immediately after the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe race.

***Haupt Racing Team also missed Pre-Qualifying after its No. 79 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo encountered a cracked engine during Free Practice. The Nürburgring-based squad elected not to replace the block of the 6.3-liter V8 but instead went for repairs.

***SRO is considering changes to the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa timetable to offload a large number of sessions on Thursday. “Our technical department have asked us to change the sessions to spread it more over two days,” Ratel told Sportscar365. “It gives more time for technical control, but no decision has been taken yet.”

***Ratel will “have a round of calls” after the summer break with interested parties regarding his planned GT2 showcase on the Indianapolis 8 Hour support bill. “Everybody has said they were interested,” said Ratel. “Now I have to see how many will be there.”

***There are three sim racing competitions taking place in the Fanatec Arena this weekend. In addition to separate SRO-run series for real-world and esports drivers is the Lamborghini Real Race, which is holding its European regional final. 23 drivers who qualified through a mixture of at-home and on-site competitions will contest two 60-minute races.

***The winner, determined by an aggregate points system, will be considered for Lamborghini’s official esports team. The Real Race is pitched as a grassroots imitative to find up-and-coming esports talent.

***ROWE Racing arrived at the Nürburgring with “mixed feelings” after the BMW M4 GT3 was handed a turbo boost pressure reduction in the pre-event Balance of Performance. The BMW has lost 80-millibar since the GTWC Europe Sprint Cup round at Misano and slightly less compared to the last Endurance Cup race at Spa. “I’ve never seen such a drop in boost pressure,” said ROWE team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf. “We come here with mixed feelings, but we are trying to make the best out of it.”

***Despite winning the 24 Hours of Spa, ROWE drivers Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly saw their Endurance Cup points lead over Akkodis ASP’s Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Timur Boguslavskiy reduced by three points. “I think it’s ups and downs and anything can happen,” said Naundorf. “I’m sure it’s going to get exciting.”

***K-PAX Racing team strategist Thomas Blam told Sportscar365 that the Lamborghini team is “cautiously optimistic” about its chances on Sunday after finishing seventh in Free Practice and gathering race-relevant setup data in Pre-Qualifying. “We did a long run this afternoon, and between yesterday and today we got enough.”

***A minimum pit stop time of 72 seconds will apply during standard refueling stops in the three-hour race.

***CLRT boss Come Ledogar is making back-and-forth trips across the Eifel and Ardennes hills as he monitors his team’s entries in GTWC Europe and the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup round at Spa-Francorchamps. The circuits are about 90 minutes apart by road.

***Ledogar told Sportscar365 that he is aiming to move CLRT into the Pro class of Endurance Cup next year, alongside its continuing Bronze Cup effort. The French squad currently has no plans to order a third Type-992 Porsche 911 GT3 R, however.

***Frederic Makowiecki will also form part of CLRT’s Bronze Cup crew at the 3 Hours of Barcelona, Ledogar confirmed. The Porsche Hypercar driver was replaced by Hugo Chevalier at Monza and Paul Ricard, and not the other way around as previously thought.

***The GT1 Sports Club powered by Curbstone is in action at the Nürburgring. Seven Pagani Huayra Rs were in the paddock on Saturday, along with three Lamborghini Essenza SCV12s, a pair of Braga Bohemas and a McLaren Senna.

***According to paddock chatter, there is high European interest in the return of the FIA GT World Cup on the streets of Macau later this year. Shipping is due to take place in September, before the end of the Endurance Cup season.

***After winning his first Sprint Cup race at Misano this month, Valentino Rossi says his “next target” is to claim an Endurance Cup podium. “Sprint is more similar to MotoGP because you have just 30 minutes and you have to push from the beginning,” said the Team WRT driver. “In Endurance, especially in the races that are longer than three hours, there is also a lot of strategy. You have a lot of traffic and you have to manage it to save the car.”

***Rossi and Maxime Martin are now second in the Sprint Cup standings, 16 points behind leaders Marciello and Boguslavskiy. When asked if he views himself as a potential title challenger, Rossi said that the remaining circuits could make it tough. “The target is to be competitive,” he added. “For the championship, it will be difficult, but we can try.”

***Rossi ruled out doing the Nürburgring 24 next year due to the process of obtaining a Nordschleife driving permit. The N24 is joining the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli, which WRT competes in, but Rossi said: “To take the license, you need to do a minimum of two or three races with a small car. I think that will be difficult. It’s a great shame, but I don’t have enough time.”

***WRT completed a further test with the BMW M Hybrid V8 at Portimao within the last two weeks, having banked its first outing with the car at Aragon in June. Jake Dennis, Marco Wittmann, Dries Vanthoor and Rene Rast are understood to have driven.

***Qualifying begins at 8:45 a.m. local time (2:45 a.m. EDT) with the 3 Hours of the Nürburgring scheduled to start six hours later at 2:45 p.m. (8:45 a.m. EDT).