With the Nurburgring 24 less than 24 hours away, now is a good time to preview the race. Remarkably, almost 200 teams will race around the clock on the full 73-turn Nordschleife. All eyes might be on the Monaco GP on Sunday, but the 24 is a much more daring and less covered event. It also gives local and smaller teams a chance to race with the factory big boys.
Earlier today Raeder Automotive set the fastest qualifying time in their Matech Ford GT ahead of many factory teams and some of those with newly prepared cars. There was lots of talk about the four factory Audis, but it’s Lexus that gets our immediate attention with their LFA Supercar. Both cars were nearly 20 seconds off pace in rain-soaked practice, but the new livery looks tremendous at speed.
Volkswagen have used the event to launch their Scirocco R road car while the Scirocco GT24-CNG natural gas version will be racing the 24. Even though Subaru officially withdrew from WRC, they have prepared a new factory Impreza WRX STI. Other factory teams include Aston Martin with the Vantage V12, Alpina, Audi and Quasi-factory entries from BMW and Porsche.
