2024 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers Race2 Report

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The 24-hour race at Nürburgring, Germany, will be held on Saturday, June 1st, to Sunday, June 2nd, at the one of the most challenging race tracks around the world. As its prelude, Qualifiers took place on the second weekend of April, with Race 1 on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday. Unlike the first race, the second one started at 13:00, finishing before sunset.

Having had the NLS (Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) season opener the previous weekend, the competitors had another doubleheader in this Qualifiers, which must be tiring. On top of this, the qualifying session of Race 2 began at 8:15 on Sunday morning, less than 11 hours after Race 1’s finish at 21:30 on Saturday. Naturally, some of the team staff looked exhausted when they arrived in the morning.

However, the Qualifiers meeting was one of a few precious opportunities to drive around Nordschleife continuously before the 24-hour race. Therefore, Race 2 was important for the teams not only for data collection but also to build up momentum for the real thing, so the drivers’ and staff’s sense of mission and morale were still high.

Team ADVAN x HRT won three consecutive races in the SP9 Pro-Am class, two in the first two rounds of NLS and Race 1 of Qualifiers, and was riding the crest of a good wave. As for the driving lineup of the team’s no.6 Mercedes AMG GT3, Dennis Fetzer and Salman Owega remained the same as that of Race 1, but Ralf Aron replaced Hubert Haupt in Race 2. The 26-year-old contributed a lot to the team’s wins in the first two rounds of NLS.

For Race 2, the so-called Top Qualifying format was adopted since it would also be used in the 24-hour race in June. In this particular meeting, the predetermined number of faster qualifiers in a 90-minute session, which started at 8:15, were eligible for Top Qualifying, where each of the participating cars did a lap of one-by-one qualifying attempt. The results from these sessions decided the starting grids for the race.

Race 2 attracted as many as 120 entries, including 28 FIA GT3 cars competing in the SP9 class. Team ADVAN x HRT successfully got to Top Qualifying, and Aron set 8’14″026 in the single qualifying lap. His time was 4.807 seconds behind the fastest car in the session but good enough to secure the third grid in the SP9 Pro-Am class and the 20th overall.

Top Qualifying ended at 11:40, which meant the teams had only one hour before the formation lap would get underway. The signal at the pit exit turned green at 12:10, and the competing cars headed to their starting grids. Then, the pit straight was heavily crowded with the fans who joined Grid Walk, and they even struggled to reach the car or the driver they wanted to cheer in person!

At the same time, many spectators in their own styles were seen at watching spots along the track. Their joyful and placid atmosphere was in stark contrast to the circuit’s alias, Green Hell, derived from the challenges it poses to the racers.

But, of course, the drivers and team staff on the grids were gradually getting nervous as the time to start was approaching. The formation lap began at 12:40, and the 4-hour race started at 13:00 on time. While there were some contacts in the field when they entered the first corner, Aron, at the wheel of the no.6 car, steered himself away from trouble and kept his position as he headed to the forest of Eifel.

Aron once lost three places on the track but got back to the position where he had started by setting his personal best lap time on Lap 4 and improving it further on the next lap. At the end of Lap 6, he returned to the pit to change to Owega.

On Lap 9, multiple crashes occurred in an area where oil had been spilled on the track. The affected area was designated as the speed limit section, and guard rails were repaired for safety reasons. Thus, the race became a little bit rough well before it reached the halfway point. Nevertheless, Owega went on faultlessly until coming into the pit to change to Fetzer at the end of Lap 13.

Fetzer rejoined the race just as the first two hours of the four-hour race elapsed. When all SP9 class competitors had made their second pit stops, Team ADVAN x HRT’s no.6 car was leading the SP9 Pro-Am class.

Fetzer stayed in the cockpit when the no.6 car made its third and final pit stop to drive for the last two stints to the end. All he had to do during the last stint was bring the car back safely. In this way, Team ADVAN x HRT has won four consecutive races in the SP9 Pro-Am class since the NLS’s first round and built a lot of momentum toward the 24-hour race in June.