One week on from a historic hatrick for Scuderia Ferrari at Le Mans, Porsche and co. look to defend their glory on home soil. It’s the one and only 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, and it promises to be a brilliant one at that. But who will be victorious in the most unpredictable race of the year?

Mercedes were not having the best of times with a hefty penalty on its remaining #17 car on track, as another SP9 Pro car in strife was the remaining Falken Porsche #44 of Dorian Boccolaci, narrowly avoiding an incident with the spinning #175 PROsport SP10 class Vantage at the Carousel.

But for fans of the Dacia Sandero #300 including myself there was serious concern after the car was brought into the pits thanks to a clutch failure. The Dacia had been running smoothly since the restart, but now sat 119th and 20 laps down, and still sixth in SP3T as Salman Owega defended his sixth place hard against Adam Christodoulou’s #17 Mercedes. For the other unique cars, Bulldog Racing were running flawlessly so far, albeit off the pace in their Mini Cooper.

The #317 crew were astonishingly 80th overall and despite being fifth in class and only ahead of the Dacia were running really strongly and fighting with the VT2 and M240i cup runners. And WS Racing’s #146 was in 95th and 7th in AT3, still without incident.

Cup2 meanwhile was still between the #948 LOSCH Motorsport crew and the #918 of Muhlner Motorsport with just over two minutes separating the two teams.

In SP9 the battle for sixth continued as Ford seemed to be strengthening their challenge throughout the night. Behind though, it became apparent that Boccolaci hadn’t got away unscathed from his near miss at the Carousel, as it transpired the #44 was now having to deal with a slow puncture on its way back into the pits, limping along the Nordschleife and virtually ending it’s – and Falken Motorsports’ – chance of overall victory for the local team.

Another drama came for the #27 Red Bull Abt Lamborghini that stopped right at pit entry without warning on its way into the pits, the issue causing mass confusion as Mikael Grenier moved past Salman Owega’s #65 Ford Mustang for fourth position as the panic quickly washed away at the #27 garage. The car had simply run out of fuel at pit entry in what was a very big let off for the team.

By this point, the race was shaping up to be a duel between the #911 Porsche that had run metronomically thus far and the rapid #98 ROWE BMW that had showed enough pace to properly challenge that car in a fashion none of the others had really been able to. But with fourteen hours left to go and then some, it really was too early and too close to call. Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #109 GR Yaris was back in the pits and being pushed back into the garage in what was turning out to be a tough race for the factory cars. Subaru also found their only car in strife, the #88 WRX STI clattering the barriers and being brought into the pits to repair the damage.

Meanwhile, the SR Racing #11 Mercedes had been undergoing repairs since it had been beached in the gravel early on, and yet they managed to repair the car fully and kept it running against all the odds. In a similar vein also returning to the race was the #300 Dacia, having finished repairing their clutch and even the #13 Beetle that had been in the pits for almost an eternity were back on track too. Despite being down in 130th place and 43 laps down on the leading #911 Porsche they were still picking their way through proceedings and plodding along nicely. Also still going strong was the Bulldog Racing #317 Mini Cooper now in the hands of Samantha Tan, running in 86th overall and fifth in the AT3 class. The other car I’ve been following, the #88 factory Subaru eventually had to retire after taking huge damage on the Nordschleife. Meanwhile Mirko Mapelli was closing in on Jusuf Owega’s #65 Ford for fourth place, just four seconds back from the HRT run factory car, as the fight for second place was closing in between the #34 Walkenhorst Aston Martin and Jesse Krohn’s #98 ROWE BMW. And both were on differing pit strategies, while the #34 Walkenhorst was creeping into the picture all the while.

Then, Falken’s day got even worse. The #44 car had survived a slow puncture on the Nordschleife, but after a pit stop infringement it received a 32 second penalty on its next stop, already struggling to stay on the lead lap. And with half an hour before half distance, that’s exactly what happened. Now only the top eight cars stood in with a chance of beating the dominant Grello Porsche, with the #98, #34 and #28 all giving chase. Also still on the lead were the #17, the #65 Ford of David Schumacher and last but not least the #54 Dinamic GT Porsche. The #17 in particular didn’t help its chances at the Carousel, making contact with the #982 Cup3 Porsche of W+S Sport.

Meanwhile, running on an offset strategy by about half a stint, the #45 Realize Kondo Ferrari was steadily making progress in the hands of David Perel, and was now up behind the #17 of Christodoulou, fighting for fourth. And further back, there was more trouble for Ford. This time it was the #63 machine that suffered a stuck throttle, but with the team committed to gaining as much setup and car knowledge throughout the race they kept on going, sending the #63 into the pits and begun an extensive repair effort.

But as we progress into the morning, there’s actually been few major moments in the race. Everything’s running like clockwork by this point with the #911 holding a comfortable 2 minute lead over the competition. The #34 Walhenhorst Aston and #98 ROWE BMW are still pressuring each other for second position while David Perel is currently hounding Adam Christodoulou’s #17 machine. With most of the night running done, who will be left when dawn arrives?

thumbnail credit – Philipp Ganjon, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons