Disappointment in Germany for the safest of reasons
Monday, June 03, 2024
Having seen a vast range of climatic conditions over testing and qualifying sessions earlier in the proceedings, something that only the Green Hell could ever muster, the wet and then warmth of the race weekend resulted with the predictable fog cloud descending across the valleys overnight which negated any possibility of further racing.
With over one hundred and twenty mixed class race cars with an incredible nine Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT4 cars taking the start on Saturday afternoon, the race would not reach midnight of the opening night before the conditions had deteriorated sufficiently enough for Race Control to call a temporary halt to the proceedings.
During that seven and a bit hours of racing, the circuit had already taken a chunk out of the AMR powered effort as the full Pro #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport effort of David Pittard, Nicki Thiim, Christian Krognes and Jakub Giermaziak had suffered a puncture early on the opening lap as well as the #176 SP8T classed Dorr Motorsport entry of Arno Klasen, Eric Ullstrom, Rocco Lorenzo and Jorg Viebahn also faltering within the first couple of hours.
The older 16A generation #17 Vantage GT3 from the locally based Prosport Racing team was another early casualty with technical issues as Hugo Sasse fortunately made his SP9 N24 debut before the gremlins struck that would halt his and co-drivers Nico Bastian, Ben Green and Marek Bockmann’s 2024 ambitions.
Cycling through the predictable periods of localised yellow flags, without the possibility of any Safety car and wave arounds to catch up upon laps lost, the race was eventually halted just before midnight local time with the hope of an early morning resumption.
Those announcements sadly came and went as the fog persisted to a point where the cars did reassemble upon the grid and followed the pace car around for a few laps but by then, the race had already been lost to the weather and the race was surrendered early to the conditions.
Being the most sensible and safest decision that race organisers could have ever made, the real losers (rather than the eventually declared race ‘winners’) was of the sport – the event, the teams and drivers as well as the massive quarter of a million attending fan base and the tens of thousands more watching from around the world who lost out on the full spectacle that is the Nurburgring 24.
But then – they don’t refer to it as the Green Hell for nothing and that’s why we love it so much. There were at least some awesome images coming out from the various track session and race that did take place though!!
Roll on 2025
Photo credits – Teams / Series
