Veteran New Zealand endurance racer, Wayne Moore from Paekākāriki, heads to Germany as he competes in his 30th Nűrburgring 24-Hour race, 30 May – 2 June 2024. For the fifth year, Moore joins WS Racing from Trier, Germany, and will again drive a BMW 330i with three German team mates in the very competitive V2T Hecka class which separates rear-wheel from front-wheel drive two litre turbo touring cars.
This is an iconic race, now in its 52nd-year on the infamous Nordschleife Eifel Mountains racetrack which was opened in 1927 and deemed too dangerous for Formula One after Nikki Lauda sustained a fiery crash in 1976. Each lap includes a newer Formula One circuit, with a total lap distance of 25.3km.
This will be Moore’s 35th 24Hr race after competing at both Bathurst events in 2002 and 2023 and three times in the Dubai 24Hour race. He has always driven with foreign teams although was an influential supporter of Kiwi Team Nűrburgring, who achieved fame at the Nűrburgring, 2006-2011.
For seventeen years, Moore drove with a VW-supported team based in the werks city of Wolfsburg and this year many team members are reuniting to celebrate his 30th race.
“We had a Zoom reunion in 2023 and it will be exciting to reconnect at the racetrack in another couple of weeks.” said Moore.
WS Racing’s major sponsor is GITI Tires from Singapore who are contributing this year with a backstage tour for a small group of friends from New Zealand and Australia, joining Moore at the racetrack to enjoy the celebration.
“Thirty-years is a significant achievement and only a handful of German nationals have had more starts.”
Moore says he’s not sure when the annual pilgrimage will stop. His friend and fellow motorsport stalwart, Maurice O’Reilly, quit racing when he found he was struggling too much to get in and out of a touring car with roll cage, helmet, HANS device and associated cables and tubes. “Last year I did exactly that with the 330” says Moore, “And thought ‘this is it’, until I saw 24-year-old co-driver Lukas Drost experiencing even more problems getting into the car. Yah! I’ve still got it!”
He even asked his doctor, when passing his annual motorsport medical with flying colours and heard, “You’ll know!”
Moore, who is 72, is often fastest of the four team drivers at night and says he still drives very confidently in the dark despite racing past fires, flares, fireworks and the illuminated signs and floodlights of 235,000 fans who camp for a week in the forest beside the winding and undulating track.
Factory teams with professional drivers vie for supremacy at the front of the field and the battles between various performance marques are often intense. This year competition is heightened with the Nűrburgring 24hour race being included in the Intercontinental GT Challenge which also featured the Bathurst 12hour race in February.
133 cars competed in the 24h Qualifiers Race in April and it is expected that the actual race grid will be higher with up to 600 drivers from 30 nationalities.
Moore is keen to be competitive in his own class and add another podium finish to the many. And whatever the result you get the feeling that he’ll be back next year.
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