The Flying Kiwi team (GT3 Endurance Ltd) from New Zealand started the race in style and powered home to the finish in 55th position overall.
220 Cars started the race and after 24 hours there were 150 cars that made it to the finishing line. The race started on time at 3pm on Saturday, after several hours of pre-race celebrations in on and around the Nurburgring. For many the pre-race celebrations had been going on for 3 or 4 days. By now the forest throughout the 25km course was a mass of tents, home built scaffolding, and all manner of structures, many very elaborate. There was even an illuminated "Drive Thru McDonalds” sign that had been positioned about the half-way mark. The track itself was now covered in quite stylish graffiti and track art. It is traditional for the fans to paint their name and favourite team or car on the track. Another purpose for all the paint is to make the track slippery during the race so the fans can enjoy a little more action. The cars were pushed to the grid at 2pm. Thousands of people surrounded the cars on the grid and it was mayhem with a capital M. Then as if by magic the fans cleared the track and the race started, lights out, hammer down! Even though it is a 24 hour marathon race it is a sprint from the line and the sound of 220 cars is really quite special.
Our race starts well........for the first lap. Scott O’Donnell is driving well and on the pace, carving through the field like a hot knife through butter. Then on the second lap, near disaster, Scott spins on a corner and backs the car lightly into the armco. He pits early for a new rear wing and upright, the car was fine otherwise. Scott is straight back out and is in 99th place after what was to be the cars only unscheduled pit stop. After 1.5 hours the car was in need of fuel and returns to the pit for fuel, tires and a driver change. Allan Dippie is the next driver, Lindsay O’Donnell and Bruce Stewart in succession after Allan. This driver routine remains the same throughout the night. Racing at night is a daunting experience. Many parts of the track are lit up with bonfires and fireworks and in contrast many parts of the track are dark and lonely. What is consistent is the piercing, blinding blaze of car lights cutting through the cold German night. In every lap we pass many cars and some cars pass us. No one gives a quarter and many cars start knocking each other out during this stage of the race. Some of the accidents are very spectacular and the amazing thing is the race keeps going on around and through them. This is the only race in the world that does not use a safety car. The reason being, that to continually bunch up 200 cars would cause even more accidents at the restart. Instead each accident is cordoned off with an intervention vehicle (10 x Audi RS4's) and marked with no passing flags where the incident has occurred.
It is not unusual to have ambulances, tow trucks, fire trucks and recovery vehicles join the race, we see them on every lap and you are allowed to treat these as if they are another competitor. But we need to remain sharp, it’s very untidy to run into the back of a 50 kmh tow truck at 200kmh through a blind corner. Some competitors try this to their extreme detriment.
After 12 hours of The Green Hell (as the Nurburgring is affectionately called), drizzle starts, first on only parts of the circuit. We are on slick tires at this point so we then need to make a strategic tire choice as the car starts to slide around on the circuit, particularly on parts of the circuit where there is oil and moisture from previous accidents. It becomes too wet for slicks and too dry for wets. We pit and fit a grooved set of slicks, perfect! As the day dawns and daylight slowly comes the rain slowly leaves so we change back to slicks. We have survived the night and the wet, many have not.
Between stints the drivers try to sleep, they cannot but they do rest in the Kiwi Contanierhausen (The 20ft shipping container that has been converted into a race bed and kitchen) Bridget and Christine do an amazing 24 hour catering service for the drivers and crew. Fortunately for them the French crew next to our containerhausen have a French chef who was continually preparing a full a-la-carte catering service and menu. Our ladies secretly trade one Kiwi race cap for a variety of freshly prepared dishes from the happy little French man with a twinkle in his eye.
For our 6-man race team there is no rest ever, they remain in contact with the drivers for 24 hours and ready to pounce on the car for every expected stop whilst remaining vigilant for any unexpected eventuality. We share our pits and refueling facility with 7 other cars, 3 of which are now out of the race. Each of these teams have at least 25 other people in their crew, some of their pitstops are hilarious, and become our main source of entertainment as they shout orders to each other in German when things inevitably and progressively go wrong. Our race team smile quietly to themselves as they continually see cars up in the air with all 4 wheels off the ground yet positioned too far for the fuel lines to reach the car. Our pitstops are fast and efficient and the other race teams around us take a lesson on how to do and manage a pit stop quickly and quietly.
Progressively we move up the field, now 76th we manage to maintain a consistent rhythm and our car keeps circulating to our race strategy. Our wonderful Porsche is storming, she is a piece of German factory engineering, fast, powerful and purposeful and she is fine-tuned for this track and for 24 hours. Many other Porsches in the race have even more wonderful breeding than our GT3 however some are not so well tuned for 24 hours and attrition starts to bite, especially at the 12 - 16 hour mark. For other brands of cars it is fair to say the attrition is even more pronounced, it is a huge task to keep any car racing at this pace on this track for 24 hours.
By mid morning we have moved to 66th position.
As the day gets hotter so do the drivers who now wear cool shirts, circulating iced water through them from an ice box in the passenger side of the Porsche. Our strategy is to keep the drivers as sharp and fresh as possible during the last critical 8 hours.
The possibility of finishing now seems likely. However we know the race can bite, especially in the last few hours. Many cars are now experiencing extended holidays in the pits as their teams frantically change components or patch panels down. With just 1 hour to go our team’s tiredness is temporarily lifted as we study the team’s TV cameras and monitors and realize that we now hold 59th position. The car remains as strong as it was when it started except for a gear selection problem which we are expecting to be a clutch adjustment issue.
To finish you need to cross the finish line under your own power at the 24 hour mark. In the top 10 there are 8 Porsches with the Manthey Porsche 4 laps up and it even has time to come into the pits for a quick polish. Lesser cars with just one lap possibly left in them remain in the pits ready to be let out at the 23:50 mark so they can try to finish the race. Thousands of flag waving spectators line the track for the last lap as the team cars fall into formation. Some team cars push near expired team mates around parts of the track on this last lap, the organisers look the other way as the finish line is down hill.
The Flying Kiwi Porsche just flies and powers home at full race pace for 55th position. It is a great credit to David and the team from Motorsport Services and the team of drivers, coming to the Nurburgring from New Zealand has been a major logistical exercise and everyone has achieved what we came here to do. It is no small thing to finish what is regarded as the world’s most difficult motor race.
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