33 Porsches at this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours

On the 15/16 May Porsche will be participating in the 38th edition of the Nürburgring 24 Hours with one of the biggest line-up in many years. Porsche AG together with many customer teams will be entering Germany’s greatest motorsport event with a total of 33 vehicles, including the 911 GT3 R, the 911 GT3 R Hybrid and the 911 GT3 RS.

“This year, Porsche is particularly well represented at the Nürburgring 24 hour race by its vehicles, customers and drivers,” says Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport. “We regard this diversity as a clear commitment to the 24 hour event. Our customer teams compete with strong driver contingents, with some receiving support from our Porsche factory drivers. I’m especially curious about our 911 GT3 R Hybrid. We’re not setting our sights purely on race results, but more on the data that our race lab delivers for the further development of hybrid technology.”

The Manthey Racing team will be defending its title from last year and will drive the number one car. At the wheel of the new 480 hp 911 GT3 R will be Porsche drivers Timo Bernhard (Germany), Romain Dumas (France) and Marc Lieb (Germany), as well as Manthey pilot Marcel Tiemann (Monaco). With the performance at the first two Long Distance Championship Nürburgring races, taking first place in both, these drivers don’t seem to want anything less than a fifth straight overall victory.

“I was impressed with the new 911 GT3 R right from the start with its extremely predictable handling and reliability,” said Timo Bernhard. “And those are exactly the qualities you need in an endurance race car if you want to finish without problems and climb to the very top of the podium.”

The 911 GT3 R will also be driven by Haribo Team Manthey. The 911 with the Haribo gold bear design will be driven by experienced racing professionals such as Lance David Arnold (Germany), Christian Menzel (Germany), Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) and Alexander Margaritis (Germany). Georg Weiss, Michael Jacobs, Peter-Paul Pietsch and Oliver Kainz will also drive the 911 GT3 R of the Wochenspiegel Team Manthey.

The Mamerow Racing team will aso be drving a Porsche 911 GT3 R and will be wanting to fight for victory with Chris Mamerow (Germany) and Porsche works driver Wolf Henzler (Germany).

The 911 GT3 Hybrid will be probably Porsche’s vehicles to receive the most attention at Nürburgring thanks to its innovative which was designed o be particularly conservative with fuel. The GT3 R Hybrid will be driven by Porsche works drivers Jörg Bergmeister (Germany) and Richard Lietz (Austria), as well as Porsche junior Marco Holzer (Germany) and Martin Ragginger (Austria) and fielded by Porsche Team Manthey. The Hybrid GT3 R will have its weight increased for the 24 hours race after the orange/white liveried 911 finished in third at the second VLN race. The 25kg weight increment was an imposition from the organization.

Porsche will also have a road-going vehicle racing amongst the almost 200 race cars. The 911 GT3 RS driven by former DTM pilot Roland Asch (Germany), race professional and TV commentator Patrick Simon (Germany) as well as Nürburgring regulars and journalists Horst von Saurma (Germany) and Chris Harris (Great Britain) will be aiming to prove that a standard sports car from Zuffenhausen can also race at 24 hour race.

The 38th running of the Nürburgring 24 Hours starts on 15 May at 15.00 hours. The flag drops on 16 May at 15.00 hours.