Nürburgring 24 Hours 2024: Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 takes victory
The 52nd running of the Nürburgring 24 Hours was full of action and upsets before unfavourable conditions caused a record-breaking 14-hour stoppage
The season of 24 hour endurance racing has arrived, and the Nürburgring 24 Hours was up first. Proceedings kicked off on May 30 before lights out on Saturday June 1, where a diverse grid of 130 cars hit the 15.7-mile circuit. Seven hours in, heavy fog halted proceedings following numerous incidents and upsets, with the red flag continuing into the next day before the race was brought to an early end. Scherer Sport PHX's #16 Audi R8 LMS GT3 led the pack before the interruption, making it the outright winner of the 2024 Nürburgring 24 Hours.
As always, the race featured one of the largest grids on the motorsport calendar, with racers in the GT3/SP9 and SP-X categories leading the pack. A total of 26 cars from eight manufacturers compete in these classes, including a sole Ferrari 296 GT3 run by Frikadelli Racing – last year’s winner.
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Factory teams from Audi, BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-AMG were in the mix too, with a total of four new Aston Martin Vantage AMG GT3 Evos also on the grid alongside the likes of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 and Glickenhaus Racing’s SCG 004C. The four competing Porsche 911 GT3 Rs were the favourites for this year, having come out on top in the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) and ADAC 24h Qualifiers earlier in 2024.
Beyond the incredible 15.7-mile circuit and iconic festival atmosphere, the N24 is famed for its varied grid, with a number of unusual entries racing right alongside these top class racers. For 2024, the famous Dacia Logan made a return after a dramatic crash last year, with White Angel for Fly and Help running a Volkswagen Beetle, and even Mini’s new John Cooper Works Pro making its debut in racing-form under Bulldog Racing.
The 52nd running also marked two significant anniversaries for competing manufacturers, with Volkswagen celebrating 50 years of the Golf with the race debut of the new Golf GTI Clubsport 24h (the road-going Mk8.5 GTI Clubsport made its public debut on Friday 31). In a similar vein, Mercedes-AMG is marking 130 years of motorsport with various activities in the paddock and racing with the number 130 on its AMG GT3.
