Porsche will be represented by a large fleet of vehicles at the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring: 43 Porsche 911 and Porsche Cayman race cars will tackle Germany’s biggest automobile race on the 24.38-kilometre combination of the Grand Prix circuit and the Nürburgring-Nordschleife on 12-13 May. Like last year here, the Stuttgart marque is the most strongly represented in the field of around 150 cars in the company’s “70 Years of Porsche Sports Cars” anniversary year. Porsche Motorsport supports customer teams with 13 Porsche works drivers and four Porsche Young Professionals. In the strongest SP9 class, eight Porsche 911 GT3 R will chase overall victory.
Kévin Estre (France), Romain Dumas (France), Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) and Earl Bamber (New Zealand) share the cockpit of the 911 GT3 R (#911) fielded by Manthey-Racing. Richard Lietz (Austria), Patrick Pilet (France), Frédéric Makowiecki (France) and Nick Tandy (Great Britain) pilot the #912 sister car. Michael Christensen (Denmark), André Lotterer (Germany), Jörg Bergmeister (Germany) and Young Professional Matteo Cairoli (Italy) form a formidable quartet at the Nürburgring debut of the KÜS Team75 Bernhard. Sven Müller and Dirk Werner from Germany reinforce the Falken Motorsports crew. Porsche Young Professional Dennis Olsen (Norway) and Porsche test driver Lars Kern (Germany) drive the third 911 GT3 R campaigned by Manthey-Racing. Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland Talent Pool coach Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Young Professional Matt Campbell (Australia) take up the challenge for Frikadelli Racing. Mathieu Jaminet (France) is signed to helm the squad’s second 911 GT3 R.
“We’re delighted with our customers’ extraordinary trust. This year, there’ll be more Porsche race cars contesting the Nürburgring 24-hour race than at most other editions of the race,” says Sebastian Golz, Project Manager 911 GT3 R. “Preparations have been completed in close cooperation with the teams and everything has gone to plan so far. The VLN 1 win and double pole at VLN 2 have underlined that the 911 GT3 R is well ironed out. We’re very interested to see how we’ll perform in close collaboration with our customers against strong opposition from other manufacturers.”
For the 2018 season, the Porsche 911 GT3 R received an update: The parts kit includes a new front lid for the optimisation of thermal management plus side flicks to improve the aerobalance.
On Friday, 11 May, Porsche fans can catch a glimpse of the future in the Ring Boulevard: The spectacular next-in-line to the successful 911 GT3 R, which will compete from 2019, will be unveiled at a public press conference.
The Porsche customer teams in the SP9 class at the Nürburgring 24 Hours
Manthey-Racing (Porsche 911 GT3 R #911)
Kévin Estre, Romain Dumas, Laurens Vanthoor, Earl Bamber
Manthey-Racing (Porsche 911 GT3 R #912)
Richard Lietz, Patrick Pilet, Frédéric Makowiecki, Nick Tandy
Manthey-Racing (Porsche 911 GT3 R #12)
Otto Klohs, Lars Kern, Dennis Olsen, Philipp Frommenwiler
Frikadelli Racing Team (Porsche 911 GT3 R #30)
Lance David Arnold, Alexander Müller, Wolf Henzler, Matt Campbell
Frikadelli Racing Team (Porsche 911 GT3 R #31)
Norbert Siedler, Marco Seefried, Felipe Fernández Laser, Mathieu Jaminet
KÜS Team75 Bernhard (Porsche 911 GT3 R #17)
Michael Christensen, Matteo Cairoli, André Lotterer, Jörg Bergmeister
Falken Motorsports (Porsche 911 GT3 R #44)
Klaus Bachler, Sven Müller, Martin Ragginger, Dirk Werner
Gigaspeed Team GetSpeed Performance (Porsche 911 GT3 R #2)
Steve Jahns, Marek Böckmann, Lucas Luhr, Jan-Erik Slooten
Source. Porsche
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