Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra wins 2014 Nurburgring 24 Hours

The Audi R8 LMS ultra of Phoenix Racing wins the 2014 Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race in convincing fashion to redeem its 2013 loss to Mercedes. The #4 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Phoenix Racing finished with a three-minute lead over 2^nd placers and defending champions #1 Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, and in the process set a new distance record of 4,305.102 kilometers driven in 159 laps through 24 hours.

The #66 Dörr Motorsport GmbH McLaren MP4-12C GT3 driven by Kevin Estre clocked the fastest lap of 8:10.921 to start in front of the pack. Estre's blistering lap is also the new lap record for the event. Maxime Martin drove the #25 BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS Z4 GT3 to share the front row as he clocked in at 8:13.497. Christian Mamerow steered the #4 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra to third on the grid, sharing the second row with the #14 Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 driven by Adam Christodoulou.

Driven by Christopher Haase, Christian Mamerow, Rene Rast and Markus Winkelhock, which is the same team that won it for Audi in 2012, the #4 Audi R8 LMS ultra kept swapping positions with Lance David Arnold, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Christian Menzel and Andreas Simonsen in the #1 Mercedes SLS all throughout the night before finally staying in front in the final 6 hours of the race. The Rowe Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 completed the podium 2 laps behind. Completing the top 5 were the #44 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and the #007 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3.

For the SP-PRO Class, the #53 Gazoo Racing LF-A Code-X finished on top ahead of the Wochenspiegel Team Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

In SP 7, another Black Falcon - the #56 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup outclassed the #67 raceunion Teichmann Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and #40 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup with a 4 lap advantage.

Another Gazoo Racing entry, the #48 LF-A dominated the SP 8 class with an 8 lap advantage over the #55 Aston Martin Test Centre Vantage V12 and #48 Aston Martin Vantage V12 which included company CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez in the driver's roster.

The #111 Raeder Motorsport Audi TT RS 2.0 took the class win in SP 3T followed by the #120 LMS Engineering Audi TT RS and yet another Audi TT RS entered by Scuderia Colonia (#123). The #118 Subaru WRX STI managed a 4th place finish.

In SP 4T, the #110 Besaplast Racing Audi TT RS took the class win. The #91 Prosport-Performance Audi TT RS won the SP10 GT4 class. The #167 aesthetic racing Porsche 911 took the V6 class, while the #308 Adrenaline-Motorsport BMW M235i Racing won Cup 2 and the #250 Kissling Motorsport Opel Astra OPC Cup won Cup 1.

It was a commendable race for Nissan. The #24 Schulze Motorsport GT-R which included Gran Turismo developer Kazunori Yamauchi finished 14th overall and 12th in the SP 9 GT3 class with the #80 Nissan GT Academy RJN Motorsport GT-R NISMO GT3 finishing 14th in class composed of GT Academy graduates like Lucas Ordonez with veteran Nick Heidfeld.

Like most action-packed races, the Nürburgring 24 Hours had no shortage of accidents. The fast-paced polesitter #66 Dorr Motorsport McLaren MP4 along with two BMW Z4 GT3s for Marc VDS Racing and the #30 Nissan GT Academy GT-R GT3 were just some of the cars that crashed out of competition.

With constant development and improvement, records are set and broken. A new qualifying lap record was set at 8:10.921 by the #66 Dorr Motorsport McLaren, and a new distance record of 4,305.102 kilometers driven in 159 laps by the #4 Phoenix Motorsport Audi R8 LMS ultra.