Team rewards itself with Top Ten in chaotic, wild Nürburgring 24 Hours

A sunny Eifel welcomed race fans and a grid of 54 cars to the legendary Nürburgring on Saturday, as the seventh annual iRacing Nürburgring 24 Hours went under way shortly after four o’clock in the afternoon.

Manuel Mayer had previously qualified the team’s No. 84 Porsche 911 GT3 R in 44th place with a lap time of 8:08.499, eight seconds off the pole.

At the start, things escalated quickly and as starting driver, Mayer shouted angry words over the team radio, as multiple cars crashed and hit each other in turn one and then also involved the Fischer Motorsport machine. But luckily no damage came from the incident and Mayer was able to move on.

But the opening lap continued to have unexpected surprises in store for the Teisendorf, Germany native as he had to avoid several other crashes and avoid contact when other cars made aggressive moves to gain as many positions as possible in the early stages of the race.

„Some of these guys just don’t get it, seriously. This was some of the most ridiculous driving in a 24-hour race I’ve ever seen, just totally pathetic.“, explained Mayer after his opening double stint.

Mayer kept a cool head and got through the first two hours of the race unscathed and handed over an undamaged car to team-mate Paddy Schindler.

Schindler impressed with very competitive pace but unfortunately was unable to avoid the a wrecked GT3 car at Metzgesfeld in his second stint. As a result the 20-year old crashed hard into the driver’s side door of the other car and the Fischer Motorsport Porsche suffered significant front-end damage.

The team decided to focus only on superficial repairs for the moment, trying to continue on as is. But halfway through Benjamin Fischer’s double stint later in the evening, it proved to slow the car down too much and the team decided to make a full repair, dropping the team down a couple of laps.

„We were losing roundabout 8 seconds per lap due to the front-end damage, so we decided it just doesn’t make sense to continue like this and we brought the car in to replace the whole front-end and then see where we are afterwards.“, explained Fischer.

Fischer proved in his second stint, that the car was indeed much faster after the repair stop and handed the car over to Danish team-mate Niclas Pedersen.

The Aarhus, Denmark native unfortunately had a metal lapse driver error and hit the barriers at „Steilstrecke“ after the night set over the track, but the team was able to continue and repair this as well.

Running two laps behind the leaders already due to the previous repairs, the team realized it would be a long shot to get back into this race. That’s when things eventually took a turn for the worse. Running on his first out lap, Kyle Birnie hit the curbs and bump at „Schwalbenschwanz“ and crashed into the outside guard rails.

The 32-year old Californian immediately felt that something was very wrong in the car after the hit.

„I immediately felt the right rear suspension broke. It sucks, I hate it for the team, really. I’ve run through that corner a hundred times, never had this happen.“, said Birnie.

What followed was another lengthy repair stop and the team fell further behind.

Birnie and his brother Jason went on to cover the night time driving shift for the team, putting on a rally and pushing hard to make up lost ground. Kyle Birnie set the team’s fastest lap time of the race at 8:03.953 , faster by over four seconds than Mayer’s Qualifying time.

When Sunday morning arrived Manuel Mayer completed a perfect double stint, followed by another incident-free double stint of Benjamin Fischer, to bring the team within reach of the top ten.

It all came down to the final hour of the race. In a strategy gamble, the team short-pitted with 47 minutes to go, while the direct opponent for P10, the No. 21 BMW of Lekiam Motorsport went past Pedersen and looked like the favorite to steal away the tenth-place finish from Fischer Motorsport.

However, the fuel calculations proved to pay off from the pit box and while the No. 21 BMW had to do one more pit stop with two laps to go, Pedersen stayed out and brought home the P10 finish to take the checkered flag.

„Man, I’m going to tell you. If you had asked me last night, after Kyle’s crash on the out lap, if we’d come back to get a top ten out of this, I’d have called you crazy for just asking such a question.“, team manager Benjamin Fischer said.

„But that’s what this team is all about. Yeah, it wasn’t a great race for us overall. Again, too many individual mistakes and our preparation was probably not the best this year, either, cramping it all into just one week of practice. But you see, this team never gives up in the face of adversity. And I’m really proud of that. Many others would have just quit. We didn’t.“

The team’s tenth-place finish continues a streak of solid finishes in the Nürburgring 24 Hours for the team after two second-place finishes in the last few years. However, the team continues to wait for its first victory at the Nürburgring.

„You know us. We’ll be back next year. Count on it!“, Fischer said.

Race Results: iRacing Nürburgring 24 Hours

© 2022 Fischer Motorsport Official Race Results - 2022 iRacing Nürburgring 24 Hours

© 2022 Fischer Motorsport Official Race Results - 2022 iRacing Nürburgring 24 Hours