Kiwi race driver Wayne Moore has become something of an icon at Germany’s infamous Nürburgring race track and will visit the demanding 25.3 kilometre circuit for the 24th year in May (10-13 ). Moore will drive in the 24 hour race that attracts up to 200 production, touring and GT3 cars with drivers this year from 36 nationalities.
No driver outside Germany has driven this race more often than Moore and he likens his participation to an adrenalin-fuelled pilgrimage.
At the front of the twenty-four hour field are factory teams vying to win and so intense is the competition now that Moore says any one of fifty cars could be the first across the line at the finish. Maybe Porsche, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, SCG, Lexus or Nissan?
Deeper in the field are also factory teams from Hyundai, KTM, Ford, Toyota and Lexus, competing for a class win to gain a marketing advantage. Between these million-Euro endeavours are privateers like Moore who compete for the sheer exhilaration and satisfaction of finishing the race and achieving quick consistent laps in front of the 200,000+ fans who encircle the race track and camp throughout the picturesque and forested Eifel Mountains.
Moore will again join fellow Kiwi Michael Eden and Dane Niels Borum who owns their BMW 3.5 litre 335 E92. “We have unfinished business this year”, says Moore. “The car crashed last year early in the first qualifying session and our mechanical team were never able to fully achieve a repair which saw the Scanngrip-sponsored 400hp BMW languishing down the field.
“We run in class SP8T which this year has attracted factory-supported Mercedes and BMW entries and it’s always humbling to rub shoulders (hopefully not literally) with DTM and Le Mans drivers you only otherwise see on television.”
Also competing in a factory Manthey Racing Porsche is fellow Kiwi Earl Bamber who will be looking for a finish after not doing so in his first Nurburgring 24 hour race two years ago.
Moore first learned of this annual event which is now in its 46th year from German Florian Schmidt when they rallied together in New Zealand in the late 1980’s.
Schmidt returned to Europe and invited Moore to join him in 1994 and race the Nürburgring in a Suzuki Swift. Brothers Eberhard and Norbert completed the driving line-up that year and it was the Rattunde’s who next invited Moore to ‘The Ring’ as they formed an alliance with Volkswagen.
The next seventeen years resulted in a string of successes in various VW’s and often diesel-fueled cars. The factory-supported drives concluded and Moore is now a privateer who has continued to drive a wide range of race cars.
Safety regulations now restrict a driver to no more than 3 hours driving without a 2 hour break and most cars need refueling before that time elapses.
Moore’s BMW has twin fuel tanks and can achieve two and a half hours which he says is enough intense high speed driving without a leg-stretch and a rest.
The Scangrip team are again supported by Sorg Motorsport and working on achieving a better result than 2017. Whatever the outcome Moore intends to continue his pilgrimage and is already planning 2019.
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