New Zealand endurance racer Wayne Moore from Paekākārik,i has competed his 30th Nürburgring 24hour race. Moore drove a BMW 330i for Giti Tires by WS Racing with James Breakall from England and Germans Christoph Merkt and Stephan Schroers.
The weekend started on a high with Moore qualifying the 2litre turbo BMW for the team on lap one of the first qualifying session. Moore says it was through quirks not talent, “There was never again clear track throughout the 3 qualifying sessions and neither Merkt nor Schroers had driven the challenging Nordschleife racetrack at night.”
240,000 fans camped around the 25.3km circuit with campsites opening and the party atmosphere commencing the week before the race. The rolling start lap was very emotional for Breakall as fans are permitted outside of the FIA 3m safety high fence as they line the edge of the racetrack. Moore says drivers used to clap hands with the fans although the distance between them is a little greater now. He also talks of smelling steaks cooking on grills as cars race past fan campsites.
The team initially climbed to fourth in class and Moore was third driver and next in the #506 car when a fuel issue resulted in the car loosing one hour stopped in the forest.
Scheduled driving stints were seven laps and Moore pitted with one to go as driving a progressively wet track on slicks was not prudent with numerous incidents creating code 60 situations.
Due to the enormous length of the Nürburgring Nordschleife it is not possible to use a full course safety car and incidents are localised with purple code 60 signs and yellow flags.
The former imposes a maximum speed at 60km/hr which aligns with the pit lane speed limit so easy for drivers to activate their speed limiter. Rescue and service vehicles may then be on the racetrack and these are treated as other competitors and can be passed.
Not long after Moore’s shortened drive, the race was red flagged as fog became impenetrable. When the race finally restarted early afternoon, cars and crews had been resting for fifteen hours. The fog was still dense and organisers led five sighting laps for all competitors in three separate groups behind intervention vehicles before declaring a finish.
Moore’s BMW team finished eighth in class and 101st overall after losing one valuable hour. He says he has unfinished business and will return in 2025 for race number 31.
So, the 52nd 24hour race at the Nürburgring was run for 7hrs 22mins and the shortest race yet. It was won by Frank Stippler, Christopher Mies, Ricardo Feller and Dennis Marschall in a Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS, with Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), BMW M4 GT3, Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 filling the top five places.
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