KW Winners at the 24hr Nürburgring 2021

It is always unpredictable who will win the Nürburgring 24-hour race in the end. Every single time, the Green Hell, which is the world’s most dangerous racetrack and was named by the three-time Formula 1 world champion Sir John Young “Jackie” Stewart, makes history.

At the same time, the track often causes tears, frustration, and joy.

The track layout, the almost non-existent run-off zones and the typical Eifel weather with its capricious conditions repeatedly provide drama.

How much the weather changes were already foreseeable in the run-up to the official race.

While the track was largely dry on Thursday and Friday during Qualifying 1, Qualifying 2, and Qualifying 3, it started raining heavily on Friday evening when the two top qualifying sessions took place.

In the pouring rain, despite aquaplaning and limited visibility, the British racer Nick Yelloly managed to qualify the BMW M6 GT3 of the KW Competition motorsport customer and last year’s winner ROWE RACING for pole position with a lap time of 10:01.619 minutes.

The weather also remained variable on Saturday afternoon and worsened from lap to lap.

 

However, the performance of the KW Competition motorsport customers did not get worse at all. Whereas ROWE RACING’s #1 BMW M6 GT3 went head-to-head with its competitors at the front.

The second ROWE-BMW M6 GT3 (#98) moved up from the 25th on the grid to the fourth within six laps. The two ROWE RACING BMWs took turns at the front several times.

Always in the middle of it, all are the Frikadelli Racing Porsches, which unfortunately became a victim of the Green Hell like so many other favourites at the 49th edition of the 24h race.

 

Equally, the Manthey-Racing Porsche with the starting number 911 moved up from eleventh on the grid to fourth in the opening laps.

The Manthey-Racing Porsche (#911) was in sixth position when the race was interrupted for 14.5 hours.

Fog and low-hanging clouds hampered the restart, which did not take place until midday on Sunday.

At the restart, a spectacular sprint race broke out over the Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit and the Nordschleife.

Manthey-Racing driver Kévin Estre drove the yellow-green Porsche 911 GT3 R at the end in two stints through the Green Hell.

 

His lapping and spectacular evasive maneuvers sometimes even took him over hill and dale. Despite his fearless and daring way of driving, the Porsche remained controllable with its multiple adjustable KW Competition Solid Piston racing shocks.

With a lead of just 8.817 seconds over the ROWE Racing BMW M6 GT3, the Manthey-Porsche crossed the finish line in first place for the seventh time at the Nürburgring 24h race.

Excellent success record on the Nürburgring Nordschleife

With this masterpiece, we celebrate our ninth overall victory as a suspension supplier on the Nürburgring Nordschleife – after the Zakspeed victory in 2002 and the Manthey Porsche victories in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2018, 2021 and the ROWE RACING victory in 2020.

We equipped 61 of 121 race cars, which were entered and which also started at the 49th ADAC Total 24h Race Nürburgring, with our 5-way, 4-way, 3-way and 2-way adjustable dampers. Therefore, as in previous years, we were the largest supplier on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Worldwide, the successful KW Competition racing suspension technology is used by numerous car manufacturers and private teams in the world of motorsports. More and more customer racing programs in the automotive industry, including among others the Mercedes-AMG GT4, Porsche 911 GT3 R, Porsche Cayman GT4 CS and Toyota GR GT4 Supra, already rely on KW’s suspension technology.

The latest BMW M4 GT3 from 2022, which had its official world premiere in front of the public at the Nürburgring 24h race, will also be delivered to BMW motorsport customers with KW Solid Piston racing dampers.

Overall victory and numerous finishers on the podium for our customers

In addition to the overall victory of the Manthey-Racing “Grello” Porsche with the starting number 911 driven by Matteo Cairoli, Michael Christansen and Kévin Estre, KW motorsport customers celebrated numerous class victories and finishers on the podium.

The ROWE RACING drivers Martin Tomczyk, Connor de Phillippi, Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann in the BMW M6 GT3 (#98) finished second.

Moreover, the Falken Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (#44) driven by Klaus Bachler, Martin Ragginger, Sven Müller and Alessio Picariello finished fourth and was also among the top ten of KW motorsport customers.

The Huber Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (#23) crossed the finish line in eighth place and won the SP9 ProAm class. The second Falken Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (#33) finished ninth.

Besides the overall victory, the KW Competition customer teams celebrate another 13 class victories.

KW Competition class victories (# = starting number)

  • Four Motors Biconcept-Car with #320 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup II in AT class
  • Adrenalin Motorsport Team Alzner Automotive with #231 BMW M240i Racing in BMW M240i class
  • G-Tech Competition with #305 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport in Cup 3 class
  • Schnitzelalm Racing GmbH with #34 Mercedes-AMG GT4 in SP 10 class
  • Hyundai Motorsport with #165 Hyundai i20N in SP 2T class
  • Carsten Meurer, Volker Schackmann and Klaus Müller with #325 BMW 325i E90 in SP 4 class
  • Huber Motorsport with #80 Porsche 911 GT3 CUP in SP 7 class
  • Manthey-Racing #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R in SP 9 class and overall victory
  • Huber Motorsport with #23 Porsche 911 GT3 R in SP 9 Pro-Am class
  • Team Mathol Racing with #168 Porsche 718 Cayman S in V 3T class
  • FK Performance with #159 BMW 330i in V2T class
  • Team Mathol Racing #132 Porsche Cayman S in V6 class

Our wide-ranging KW Competition racing program offers the perfect suspension technology for every type of motorsport and every set of regulations. We produce vehicle-specific racing suspensions as homologated standard developments for numerous GT3, GT4, TCR and Cup vehicles or as individual applications.

Many motorsport customers appreciate KW for the possibility of a customized production for the respective racing application. The suspension manufacturer makes use of the latest damper technology, which is individually tuned to the respective vehicle according to objective criteria and the latest findings that integrate the KW 7 Post Rig. Even the historical world of motorsports benefits from this.

For this reason, more and more drivers of vintage cars and more recent vehicles rely on KW’s dampers and complete suspensions in the historic touring car and rally sports.

The KW Competition motorsport customer and privateer Pütz Motorsport won the ADAC 24h-Classics with a Porsche 911 RSR (drivers Ingo Pütz and Christoph Breuer, #578).

Prosport Racing finished second with an Opel Kadett (drivers Chris Esser and Nico Verdonck, #504).

Peter and Jürgen Schumann crossed the finish line in third place together with Olaf Manthey in the BMW 635 CSI #508.

Photocredits Gruppe C Photography, KW, W. Inhester, BMW Group (Martin Hangen/hangenfoto)