MOTORSPORT: Porsche trumps Audi at Nurburgring

Porsche scored its fourth straight Nurburgring 24-hour win last weekend but not before repelling a major assault from arch rivals Audi. The Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RSR driven by Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Marcel Tiemann successfully held off the new Audi R8 V10 crew of Christian Abt, Jean-Francois Hemroulle, Pierre Kaffer and Lucas Luhr.

As expected, the VIP Petfoods Racing entry of Tony Quinn, Klark Quinn, Craig Baird and Grant Denyer were the best performing Australian crew, finishing ninth outright in their Porsche 911 GT3-RSR.

In front of a crowd of 235,000 spectators around the 20km circuit, the Manthey Porsche waged a race-long fight against the fleet of four new R8 Audis. The Porsche team was unhappy with a regulation change that allowed the Audi to run a 20-litre bigger fuel tank. That resulted in a strategy change for the Porsche crew.

"To counteract this we had to take more risks and turn one qualifying lap after the other to stay in the lead," explained Bernhard.

Porsche Motorsport boss Hartmut Kristen was understandably happy with seven 911s finishing inside the top 10.

"There is hardly a more impressive way to show that the Porsche 911 is still the best sports car in the world," said Kristen. "Congratulations to Manthey Racing and all the other Porsche teams who did a great job in their respective classes. Despite the new tank regulations clearly disadvantaging the Porsche teams, the Manthey squad could still bring home their fourth straight win."

Porsche was made to work hard, with the new V10-powered R8 GT3 racers proving quick and benefiting from the larger fuel tanks. In the end, the Audi challenge was blunted by reliability problems that hit three of its four entries.

The #99 R8 of Marc Basseng, Mike Rockenfeller and Frank Stippler lead the race for 17 hours before a transmission failure cost them six laps and any chance of victory.

Despite this, Audi Motorsport chief Wolfgang Ullrich was happy with the performance of his car and teams. The race was the last test of the car before Audi begins its major customer program with it for various GT categories around the world.

"For the Audi R8 LMS, this race was a final test under extreme conditions on the world's longest race track," Ullrich said. "We were able to show that our new GT3 sports car is absolutely competitive for customer sport. And the number 97 Audi R8 LMS ran without the slightest problems despite the incredibly high speed."

The battle between Porsche and Audi resulted in the fastest 24-hour race in the circuit's history and set a new distance record of 3,993km.

The factory entered Aston Martin Vantage V12 finished 21st, which was better than the two prototype Lexus LF A supercars could manage. Only one of the Japanese coupes finished, in 87th, but ensured new company president Akio Toyoda returned safely to his day job.

Volkswagen enjoyed a successful outing winning both classes with its petrol and Compressed Natural Gas powered Scirocco. The best place petrol GT24 was 15th overall while the leading GT24-CNG came to the flag in 17th position.

The ex-V8 Supercar Holden Commodore entered by Australian Mal Rose failed to make the finish after an eventful race that included loosing a wheel halfway around the track.

2009 Nürburgring 24 hour results
1. Bernhard/Lieb/Dumas/Tiemann, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 155 laps
2. Abt/Hemroulle/Kaffer/Luhr, Audi R8 LMS,154
3. Collard/Henzler/Lietz/Werner, Porsche GT3 Cup S, 152
4. Alzen/Bert/Arnold/Mies, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 150
5. Basseng/Fässler/Rockenfeller/Stippler, Audi R8 LMS, 149
6. Schmitz/Abbelen/Althoff/Heyer, Porsche 911 GT3, 149
7. Kräling/Gindorf/Scharmach/Holzer, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 149
8. Bermes/Kainz/Schmickler/Bergmeister, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S, 148
9. Quinn/Quinn/Baird/Denyer, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 146
10. Adams/Ludwig/Meier/Grossmann, BMW Z4 M Coupé, 145

Podium pic (left to right): Jean-Francois Hemroulle, Christian Abt, Lucas Luhr, Pierre Kaffer, Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, Marcel Tiemann, Martin Ragginger, Emmanuel Collard, Dirk Werner, Wolf Henzler

Other pics show first cars past the finish, winning Porsche and second-placed Audi.

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