Written by Aaron Carroll and Benjamin Crundwell, Edited by Sasha Macmillen
This week on Endurance Weekly, the DIVEBOMB endurance team will be taking a look forward to this coming weekend and the first round of the 2025 NLS season, whilst also taking a look back at last weekend's IMSA 12 hours of Sebring.
Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie Round 1 (NLS 1) - Preview
The Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie(NLS) kicks off this Saturday at 11:00 GMT, after qualifying at 07:30 the same morning. The race will last four hours on the Nürburgring Gesamtstrecke, which is the combination of the GP track and Nordschleife.
The weather is forecast to be cloudy, and there is a 40% chance of rain during the race. As the track is 28 km long, there is a high likelihood the weather will vary across the whole track, potentially with heavy rain in one area, but dry track in another.
165 cars will start the race, split across almost 40 classes. The SP9 class consists of all FIA (Fédération Internationale de L’Automobile) homologated GT3 cars, and can be split into pro, pro-am and am groups. Drivers in the SP9 class will be expected to win overall, as they are piloting the fastest cars.
In SP8T Youtube stars Jimmy Broadbent, Steve Brown and Misha Charoudin are racing their BMW M4 GT4 Evo with Nürburgring 24 hours winner Manuel Metzger for the second consecutive season.
In other NLS news, Porsche have renewed their contract with VLN (Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring). VLN director Mike Jäger said the Porsche brand is: ‘an important part of the 49-year history of our series.’
Porsche have taken 230 victories over their time in NLS, as well as winning their class 1,582 times. This season the German brand will run two one-make classes, using a Porsche 992 GT3 Cup and a Porsche Cayman GT4.
IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring - A look back
Last weekend's 12 Hours of Sebring was won by Porsche Penske Motorsport with their No.7 car driven to the victory by Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor. LMP2 was won by the No.43 Inter Europol car piloted by Tom Dillmann, Jeremy Clarke and Bijoy Garg, with Laurin Heinrich, Klaus Bachler and Alessio PIcariello in the No.77 AO Racing Porsche, ‘Rexy the dinosaur’ taking home the GTD PRO victory and Russell Ward, Indy Dontje and Phillip Ellis winning GTD in the No.57 Winward Mercedes.
It was back-to-back wins for the Porsche crew in GTP, having taken the win in the season-opening Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, after the same 963 car had dominated the championship last season with two wins and six podiums, sealing the championship. Expectations were mixed however coming into the weekend after the 963 had a distinct lack of pace in the WEC season opener in Qatar, but Penske proved many doubters wrong with dominant nighttime running to seal the win.
Aston Martin also brought the Valkyrie to the US for its stateside debut, producing promising results. After a disappointing running in its full debut in the WEC in Qatar, the Aston Martin THOR team and Heart of Racing displayed some good pace in Sebring, coming home in ninth, with no major issues for the V12 Machine. A good result for the British marque, giving them some confidence heading into the rest of the IMSA and WEC seasons.
Read the full race report here
With Sebring behind us, teams can now look forward to California and the Grand Prix of Long Beach in April.
Opmerkingen