• Kaya/Piana/Scheerbarth/Stursberg from BLACK FALCON (#103) win the Cup 2 class
• Last year's winners Eichenberg/Grosse/Grütter from SRS Team Sorg Rennsport (#959) repeat class victory in Cup 3
• Fog leads to long interruption and early end to the race

Nürburg. The Cup 2 class winners of the ADAC Ravenol 24h Nürburgring 2024 are Mustafa Mehmet Kaya, Gabriele Piana, Tim Scheerbarth and Mike Stursberg from BLACK Falcon (#103).* In the Cup 3 class, last year's winners Heiko Eichenberg, Fabio Grosse and Patrik Grütter from SRS Team Sorg Rennsport (#959) repeated their success and won their class from pole position.* After almost seven and a half hours of racing, fog caused the race to be interrupted for a long time. The field was sent back out onto the track at midday on Sunday for five formation laps, but the poor conditions made a restart impossible. The race was flagged off just under an hour before the end of the race. A total of 20 participants in the Porsche Endurance Trophy Nürburgring took part in the endurance classic – 14 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) started in the Cup 2 class and six Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) in the Cup 3 class. The race did not count towards the Porsche one-make series classification and was instead honoured with a special classification.

The starting grid for the two classes was decided over three qualifying sessions with a total of six and a half hours of driving time on the 25.378-kilometre combination of the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit and the Nordschleife. In the Cup 2 class, Steve Jans, Tobias Müller, Noah Nagelsdiek and Morris Schuring from BLACK FALCON Team 48 LOSCH (#148) were the fastest with a lap time of 8:28.227 minutes. First place on the grid in the Cup 3 class was secured by the eventual class winners Heiko Eichenberg, Fabio Grosse and Patrik Grütter from SRS Team Sorg Rennsport (#959) with a time of 8:56.889 minutes.

Mixed conditions challenge strategists in tyre choice - Ten Voorde with parallel programme in Italy

The first hours of the race were characterised by changeable conditions and challenged the teams' strategists. The rain that set in during the opening lap resulted in the first tyre changes right at the start of the race. This also included the two Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) from BLACK FALCON. Both cars were able to work their way back up through the field in the mixed conditions until fog rolled in over the Nürburgring as darkness fell. The poor visibility led to the race being interrupted at 23:22, after almost seven and a half hours of racing. The field was sent back out onto the track for five formation laps at 13:30. However, the continued poor visibility forced race control to wave off the race about an hour before the time was up. Kaya, Piana, Scheerbarth and Stursberg thus won the class ahead of Scherer Sport PHX (#116) with Christer Jöns, Thomas Kiefer, Dylan Pereira and Larry Ten Voorde. Ten Voorde had a particularly intensive schedule this weekend. The Dutchman travelled between the Nürburgring and Imola in Italy in order to be able to contest the Porsche Carrera Cup Italia races as well as the 24-hour race. Christopher Brück, Michele Di Martino and Moritz Oberheim from KKrämer Racing (#121) completed the podium in the Cup 3 class.

„We won the class, which means we're obviously happy with the result. Of course, we're not thrilled with how the race went due to the weather, but that's not our fault. I still think we deserved our victory. We were by far the best on Saturday and led the class by almost five minutes when the race was stopped. In the end, I would have liked to have gone back to racing, as mixed conditions suit me very well. We are happy about the victory, but it is not a victory like in a huge 24-hour race,” summarised Gabriele Piana from start number 103.

First and second place in the Cup 2 AM classification went to Team RPM Racing with Philip Hamprecht, Patrick Huisman, Tracy Krohn and Niclas Jönsson in car number 107 and Peter Bonk, Jang Han Choi, Milan Kodidek and Marco van Ramshorst in car number 106, followed by KKrämer Racing (#112) with Karsten Krämer, Fidel Leib, Jacob Riegel and Jan-Erik Slooten in third place.

Eichenberg, Grosse and Grütter again Cup 3 class winners with SRS Team Sorg Rennsport

Once again, Heiko Eichenberg, Fabio Grosse and Patrik Grütter from SRS Team Sorg Rennsport (#959) stood at the top of the podium. Last year's winners of the Cup 3 class and overall champions of the Porsche Endurance Trophy Nürburgring 2023 started the race in pole position and were leading at the time of the race interruption ahead of Joshua Bednarski, Philip Miemois, Alec Udell and Niclas Wiedmann from W&S Motorsport (#962) and Alexander Fielenbach, Tommy Graberg, Oleksii Kikireshko and Rüdiger Schicht from SRS Team Sorg Rennsport (#969). With this result, the two Sorg-Caymans classified as AM achieved first and second place in the AM classification ahead of Axel Duffner, Andreas Gabler, René Höber and Alexander Müller from W&S Motorsport (#961).

„We started the race with the wrong tyre choice, but were able to fight our way through in difficult conditions into the night and retake the lead. We were then able to finish the race behind the lead car in a very exhausting stint,” says Fabio Grosse and laughs, „but for the fans who waited at the track all night, I think that was the right thing to do. Even though it wasn't 24 hours, we are very happy about P1 and hope to be able to build on it in the NLS.”

The next round of the Porsche Endurance Trophy Nürburgring will take place on 22 June. The 69th ADAC Westfalenfahrt covers a distance of four hours.

*provisional results