Another visitor from Japan and another great result, 12th overall for the Falken Motorsports Nissan Z33
on board). A further 17 victories followed over the 40 years of competition. They last had a factory presence back in 2005 when the fabulous M3 GT-R made its final appearance and signed off with a win. In common with most of the automobile industry, the marketing focus for BMW is product, the whole product, and nothing but the product. The M3 is the poster boy for all this effort so many late nights have been endured in getting cars built for Le Mans, Le Mans Series and the Nurburgring 24 Hours. Having Schnitzer on board was a major advantage as they know how to win – in any set of circumstances. A brace of BMW M3 GT2s were on hand with BMW regulars Jörg Müller, Dirk Müller, Augusto Farfus, Andy Priaulx and Dirk Werner being joined by Uwe Alzen, Pedro Lamy and local expert Dirk Adorf. Qualifying was pretty much a waste of time on Thursday as damp conditions and then dense fog brought the affair to a premature conclusion. The next day things picked up weatherwise, and so did the times. Marc Lieb scorched round in the Manthey Porsche early in the session, but a last minute charge by Audi taking advantage of the much-improved track conditions saw them occupy the top four slots. Marco Werner had pulled out all the stops to record an 8:24.753 in the Team Abt Sportsline R8 LMS, pole position for what it was worth. All the leading cars made it through the session more or less unscathed; the race might be a different story. As indeed it was. The pack took off at 3 p.m., and even before leaving the Grand Prix circuit bound for Hatzenbach, Marcel Tiemann had vaulted the Manthey Porsche to the front, from seventh on the grid. He continued to run away from the phalanx of Audis with the BMWs struggling to keep up with the pace set by the leaders. So it continued for the first two hours till Dirk Werner in the No. 26 BMW was sent off course by an errant backmarker at the Schwedenkreuze. The result? Replacement for the left front suspension, rear
shock absorber and radiator. Six laps lost, victory chances gone. One of the favorites down. At this time BMW also came to the conclusion that trying to run at the pace of Audis and Porsches was not possible, so they eased off and concentrated in getting nine laps rather than the eight of those others. This would prove crucial in the long run. There were then several extended caution periods after some big accidents involving backmarkers destroying sections of Armco, that was replaced as the action continued. As the sun dropped below the horizon the Manthey Porsche still commanded the field pulling away from the Audis. Then the fun started. First to blink was Audi, as the No. 98, once again avoiding an out-of-control backmarker near Planfzgarten bounced over the high kerbs, ripping the sump, causing the engine to blow. Another Werks challenge ended. Almost immediately the timing screens flashed up a problem for the leader. The No. 1 Manthey collected someone else’s accident destroying much of the left side of the 911. Even Manthey’s experienced crew could not make repairs to get the car back into the race. The dream was over. Win number five would not happen for the team this year. Twenty minutes later Marco Werner in the No. 1 100 Audi had a similar experience in the same part of the track. The rear suspension was damaged beyond repair. Another favorite out. This elevated No. 99 Audi into the lead and they would stay there till dawn when problems with the transmission forced a change of the rear axle. This was managed in an incredible seven minutes. This did not solve the Audi’s troubles, and a full gearbox change was next on the menu and that ended their chances of winning. So the lead switched once again, this time to the Porsche GT3 R Hybrid, with Jorg Bergmeister giving a champion’s performance behind the wheel. The battle for lead was down to the survivor from each of the factories. No. 2 kept Audi’s hopes
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