The bad luck Strauss mentioned was lap one contact for the No.80 GT-R, which forced Alex Buncombe to pit for repairs, instantly losing a lap on the competition. That car was then in fight back mode for the remainder of the race. Buncombe was able to lap on the pace of the leaders but despite his best efforts, and those of Nick Heidfeld and Strauss, the mountain was too high to climb.
Nick Heidfeld put in some great stints in the No.80 GT-R but came unstuck during the night when he made contact with another car.
“After Foxhole, which is a very quick part of the circuit, I came out of the compression and saw a yellow light then straight away I saw double yellows which means you have to be travelling at 60kph. I didn’t get enough warning so I decelerated as much as I could but then came across two cars blocking the circuit. I had to choose between hitting one of them or going onto the grass. I avoided the grass as I didn’t know if there were marshals there and hit one of the cars.”
The resulting damage put the No.80 GT-R out of action for an hour but once back in the race the car ran well.
“Overall I have enjoyed the race and it is good to get my first Nurburgring 24 Hours finish, despite not taking the position we hoped for,” continued Nick. “Realistically we had the pace for a top 10 finish.”
For the first eight hours of the race the No.30 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 – driven by Michael Krumm, Kazuki Hoshino, Katsumasa Chiyo and Tetsuya Tanaka – ran strongly but just after midnight a call rang out over the team radio to say there had been an accident, ironically at the same spot where Heidfeld later had his accident.
After exiting the Foxhole, Hoshino came across a stationery car and had to take emergency avoiding action but made hard contact with the barrier. Hoshino managed to get the GT-R back to the garage but after a thorough inspection, it became apparent that the chassis frame was too damaged to repair. The team officially withdrew the No.30 car from the race at 02:30hrs.
The highest finishing Nissan was the No.24 GT-R of Schulze Motorsport, raced by Kazanori Yamauchi, Jordan Tresson and Tobias & Michael Schulze. They crossed the line in 12th position in class.
“Before we came here we knew what a big challenge this event was,” said Darren Cox, Global Head of Brand, Marketing & Sales, NISMO. “We went head-to-head with established teams who have been coming here for years and I’m proud of the job we did here. The Nordschleife is an incredible challenge so I was especially pleased to see how well Florian conducted himself here.
“Off track we had a great Nurburgring 24 Hours, exciting the loyal fans of this event with live streaming on NISMO.TV and welcoming a huge number of guests at NISMO Race Camp,” he continued. “We may not have got the results we wanted on track – through punctures, accidents and some bad luck – but we gave it our all and will be back again next year.”
I thought NISMO good old days has ended. They still rock though.