M3 wins 24 hours of Nurburgring!
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100516/ALMS/100519901
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100516/ALMS/100519901
BMW's M3 GT2 won the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, held Saturday-Sunday on the legendary Nordschleife circuit.
The race, which also included use of the current Grand Prix circuit--linked to the old course--also saw Porsche run its 911 GT3 R Hybrid, which led the event through the night and into the morning before first encountering a blown manifold, and then a blown engine.
In the end, the factory-fielded M3 driven by Uwe Alzen, Augusto Farfus, Pedro Lamy and Jorg Muller claimed the top spot, followd by the Team Farnbacher Ferrari F430 GTC of Dominik Farnbacher, Allan Simonsen and American sports-car regular Leh keen.
Porsche's well-publicized 911 hybrid ran strong before it broke, in the hands of Jorg Bergmeister, Marco Holzer, Richard Lietz and Martini Ragginger. The car was campaigned by Germany-based Manthey Racing, which was gunning for its fourth consecutive Nurburgring 24 win. Manthey and Porsche suffered double disappointment, as its lead car--driven by Timo Bernhard, Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Marcel Tiemann--looked like the race's most likely winner early on, but lasted only seven hours after a spinning car collided with it.
Audi finished third, thanks to the R8 LMS driven by Dennis Rostek, Luca Ludwig, Marc Bronzel and Markus Winkelhock. However, that was not was Audi expected after it claimed the first two rows on the starting grid, only to see a raft of problems blunt its attack.
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