Gallery: The Nürburgring 24 Dances to Its Own (Bass) Drum

Four days removed, I still hear the cars screaming by, the engines in the Porsches and Lamborghinis and BMWs wailing a high-pitched contrast to the uhn-tz uhn-tz uhn-tz techno bass backbeat blaring from all over the track. I’ve been to more than a dozen endurance races, mostly in the States and once at Le Mans, so when Volkswagen invited me out to this year’s Nürburgring 24, I figured I knew what I was in for. Turns out I had the rhythm and the melody right, but it all combined to create a very different racing song.

The near-mythical status the Nürburgring and its 24-hour race enjoy has only increased in the 20-plus years since Gran Turismo launched on PlayStation. Over the same period, it’s become old hat for automakers from all over the world to regularly one-up each other for production-car records on the Nordschleife. The race itself reigns as Germany’s premier motorsports event, and this year’s race touted a record-breaking 280,000-person crowd. Still, it took being on the ground for me to understand what sets this race apart.

Scale Sets the Tone

The track’s sheer magnitude—conceptually obvious for anyone who’s ever watched or sim-driven a lap—becomes readily apparent once you start hoofing it. I’m a regular hiker and spend most of my time as a spectator at various races, on my feet, looking for different viewing/shooting angles. But the 15.7-mile configuration used for the 24 requires a good bit of strategic planning if you want to hit the best spots. Or, if you’re like me, a couple of granola bars and bottles of water, plus a willingness to simply take what the day brings.

That enormity drives the weekend’s atmosphere and was, to me at least, the single biggest differentiator between this race and those at Daytona and Le Mans. One hundred and forty-one cars entered this year’s race—for context, this year, 61 cars entered the Daytona 24 and 62 took to the Circuit de la Sarthe—but that astronomical field has much more tarmac to cover at the ‘Ring. As a result, there’s plenty of space, sometimes minutes, between the action. No surprise, then, that fans have created such a contagiously happy dance-party-in-a-forest-while-watching-race-cars vibe.

Relatable Production-based Classes

As cool as bleeding-edge F1 and WEC/IMSA prototype tech and speed are, it’s tough to beat a good ol’ fashioned sports car race with recognizable production-based cars. SP 9, which is the top tier of the 22(!) classes, enables GT3-level preparation and includes models from Porsche, Ford, Lamborghini, McLaren, Aston Martin, BMW, and Audi.

Volkswagen, our hosts for the event, partnered with Max Kruse Racing to field three GTIs in the AT3 class (which utilizes an alternate fuel mixture of 60% renewable content), and qualified on pole with a Golf GTI Clubsport 24h. Benny Leuchter, who recently set the fastest production Volkswagen lap ever at the ‘Ring in the new GTI Edition 50, secured the class victory with co-drivers Nico Otto, Heiko Hammel, and Johan Kristoffersen. Also of note in AT3 was Chinese automaker Lynk & Co’s third-place finish in its first-ever attempt in the race.

Hyundai dominated the TCR class, finishing one-two, the second of which featuring former Indy Car driver Robert Wickens competing in a hand-control-prepped Elantra N. Plenty, if not most, of the cars in this year’s race were turbocharged, but the enthusiastic pewpewpuhpew from the Elantras’ blow-off valves ensured everyone knew exactly when the Korean manufacturer’s cars were sailing by.

The classes even accommodated a Dacia Logan, of all things, plus a VW Beetle RSR and an E36 BMW, so participants weren’t limited to the latest metal. As someone who’s raced a Miata in the same run group as current Trans Am cars, I can only imagine how much time the Dacia drivers spent looking in their mirrors.

Pro/Am Brings the Fun

There’s only so much track width between the ‘Ring’s walls, and from the first lap it’s readily apparent who’s comfortable using every available inch and who’s working hard just to keep their car in one piece. That’s not a criticism; sports car racing has mixed gentlemen drivers with pros since the very beginning. That one of the most challenging races in the world welcomes amateur drivers into its ranks adds a layer of complexity and gives hope to club racers everywhere.

That said, there were plenty of recognizable names in the field. Misha Charoudin, a ‘Ring regular and YouTuber known for doing laps in everything from a ’60s Mustang to the latest supercars, finished second in class in a BMW M4 GT4 EVO, while IMSA and WEC hot shoes Kevin Estre (fresh off a second-place finish at Le Mans in a Penske Porsche 963 the week prior) and Augusto Farfus battled it out for the top spot overall.

Battle at the Top of the Ticket

Speaking of Estre and Farfus, Sunday morning saw the race come down to a duel between their two teams. Estre and his codrivers had dominated the race in the “Grello” green-and-yellow Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R, and Estre was in the lead when he came into contact with an Aston Martin, flipping it onto its roof (you can see video of the incident here). Officials handed down a 100-second penalty to the Manthey car, which opted to wait till the end of the race for the time to be added on rather than serve the time in the pits. Farfus and the Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO (featured in the photo atop this story) finished 22 seconds behind the Grello Porsche at the flag but took the win after the penalty time was assessed.

The Rowe BMW had its share of incidents, however, and I happened to be positioned just ahead of the corner where driver Kelvin van der Linde spun the Sorg Rennsport Porsche Cayman GT4 car of Peter Cate.

As the two passed, I could see the Rowe BMW well-ensconced in the Cayman’s rear. Just as I was pivoting from the above shot for the next set of cars to come into view, the familiar scrubbing sound of rubber on asphalt—followed by the crunch of metal, carbon, and plastic into Armco—cascaded over me. The BMW had punted the Porsche. The ‘Ring’s extra-long Golden Hour (it doesn’t get dark till after 11:00 p.m.), combined with the dust kicked up from the Cayman’s spin, made for a hairy corner for the subsequent cars racing by. The Rowe car was assessed a 30-second penalty.

Though it still looked like a summer evening, it was getting late, so after bebopping my way past a few more corners and campsites with the now-familiar uhn-tz uhn-tz backdrop, I decided it was time for the nearly two-hour walk back to Volkswagen’s hospitality area. Through the farm fields and along the dirt paths in the heavily wooded areas alongside the track, I couldn’t help but smile and tap my fingers on my water bottle. Every 24-hour race is unique, but the Nürburgring 24 truly dances to the beat of its own 808 drum.