There was no stopping Falken Motorsport at the fifth round of the ADAC Nürburgring Endurance Series. With rain setting in at the end of the race, Julien Andlauer and Sven Müller kept a cool head and crossed the finish line as winners. The duo in the Porsche 911 GT3 R won the 69th ADAC Westfalenfahrt with a commanding lead of 1:32.741 minutes ahead of Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf with drivers Lucas Auer and Ralf Aron. Team ADVAN x HRT’s brand colleagues – Hubert Haupt, Jusuf Owega and Arjun Maini – completed the top three in third place.

“That was a mega race,” said a delighted Müller, who led the race together with Andlauer for 22 of the 28 laps. “I had some great duels at the start. Our car was really good to drive, even a bit better than in the 24-hour race. Five races, four wins – we can be very satisfied with the result.” His team-mate Andlauer added: “The conditions today definitely played into our hands. We gave it our all over the entire distance and pushed hard. It’s just a shame that our sister car didn’t see the chequered flag.” Tim Heinemann and Martin Ragginger retired with a puncture three laps before the end while on course for a podium. The team’s diagnosis: a foreign object had damaged the tire.

For DTM driver Lucas Auer, it was his second podium success on the Nordschleife. “There’s always so much adrenaline in the air here, it’s just incredible fun to drive in the NLS,” said the Austrian. “If you then drive through and finish on the podium, you can be satisfied. The conditions were not easy to read today. There was a lot of oil on the track at one stage, so you always have to be ready. These are hardcore races – that’s what makes them so special.” Aron admitted that he had taken some speed out in the final phase. “We wanted to get to the finish and not take any risks. In terms of pace, we were doing well. I hope to be back on the grid here again soon.” India’s Maini celebrated his best NLS result to date with third place. “That was a cool race,” he said. “I really enjoyed the first stint. Now I hope that more podiums will follow.”

Pole position in qualifying, which started late due to fog, was secured by Frank Stippler and Vincent Kolb in the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Herberth Motorsport. In the race, the reunited duo were able to hold their own in the leading group. In his final stint, Stippler took the HRT sister car for fourth place. Fetzer, Salman Owega and David Schumacher had to settle for fifth place. Victory in the Pro-Am classification went to Sami-Matti Trogen, Benjamin Mazatis and Anders Buchardt in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport. The fastest SP9-Am car was the Audi R8 LMS GT3 of équipe vitesse, driven by Michael Heimrich, Lorenzo Rocco and Arno Klasen. As a result, the trio also leads the GOODYEAR Wingfoot Award.

Change at the top of the table

Joshua Bednarski, Lucas Daugaard and Moritz Oberheim have taken over at the top of the standings after five of eight races in the 2024 season. With their fourth victory in the CUP3 class of the Porsche Endurance Trophy Nürburgring, the AVIA W&S Motorsport trio have overtaken the previous leaders. The class victory was anything but a walk in the park, as they finished just 0.058 seconds ahead of Heiko Eichenberg, Fabio Grosse and Patrik Grütter in the SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche.

Toby Goodman, Sven Markert and Ranko Mijatovic, who had traveled to the first race of the second half of the season as championship leaders, retired in the BMW M240i Racing Cup of Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhatten Wheels after a technical defect and dropped back to second place. Daniel Mertens and Joshua Hislop, who celebrated their fourth victory in the VT2-FWD in the Hyundai i30N of Team Mertens Motorsport, are tied for second place. Third place in the championship went to Andreas Gülden, Marc Hennerici and Tim Sandtler, who won the GT4 SP10 class for the third time.

Drama in the final phase of CUP2

In the CUP2 of the Porsche Endurance Trophy Nürburgring, the final phase was a drama in several acts. Steve Jans and Tobias Müller led the field in the BLACK FALCON Team 48 LOSCH Porsche 911 GT3 R. Also involved in the battle for the lead were Daniel Blickle, Tim Scheerbarth and David Jahn in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of AVIA W&S Motorsport as well as Peter Terting and Arne Hoffmeister of Mühlner Motorsport. The CUP2 cars were so strong today that they were not lapped by the GT3 cars. For this reason, the pit strategy did not work out for all three. Mühlner and W&S opted for a short refueling stop, Black Falcon did without and chose a conservative strategy that did not work. W&S crossed the finish line in first place, but was penalized with a time penalty due to a yellow flag infringement and was ultimately classified in second place. Mühlner took its first win of the season, while Black Falcon finished third.

The ADAC Nürburgring endurance series now goes into a well-deserved summer break. On August 3, the ROWE 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal race will be the season highlight of the traditional Nordschleife championship. In keeping with the summer vacations in most German states, the focus will be on families. With a bouncy castle and other attractions in the paddock, the only race over the 6-hour distance will be a festival for young and old.