Phoenix Racing Wins The 42nd ADAC Zurich

Phoenix Racing celebrates second 24h-Race win

The Meuspsath based Team Phoenix Racing has won the 42nd ADAC Zurich 24h Race at the Nürburgring. At the end of an enormously exciting race with a total of 32 changes in the first position, Christopher Haase / Christian Mamerow / Rene Rast / Markus Winkelhock won the race with their Audi R8 LMS ultra #4, followed by Jeroen Bleekemolen / Andreas Simonsen / Christian Menzel / Lance David Arnold in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 #1 entered by last year’s winners Black Falcon.

In addition to winning the race, the victorious squad also established a new distance record by completing 159 laps on the 25.378-kilometre combination of GP circuit and Nordschleife, representing a total mileage of 4,035.102 kilometres. The podium was completed by Michael Zehe / Christian Hohenadel / Nico Bastian / Maro Engel and their Rowe Racing gull-wing racer #22. With Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, five brands made it to the top six positions in one of the most thrilling 24h Races of the resent past.

“A fantastic success in our home race,” beamed Phoenix Racing Team Principal Ernst Moser, after the squad’s fourth triumph in Eifel classic. “And I’m particularly proud of the fact that we prevailed against the arguably toughest competition in the history of this trace.” After the triumph at Le Mans, this was the second Audi win within a week. “We gave our very best to repeat last year’s success,” said Black Falcon driver Lance David Arnold, “But in the end we were pipped. It goes without saying that we are disappointed right now but I think that we may be happy with having finished runner-up, in the end.”

This year, the classic endurance race in the Eifel proved to be a true thriller. The ‘marathon’ had seen a turbulent beginning at a high pace with many incidents, and by the time the sun rose on Sunday, if not earlier, it had turned into a real sprint. In the early morning hours, the fans watched an amazing duel for the lead. With a tenth-of-a-second gap Christian Mamerow in the #4 Audi was battling with the Mercedes of the Black Falcon team. Following position battles across several laps, the Audi driver prevailed and, taking turns at the wheel with with his team-mates Christopher Haase, René Rast and Markus Winkelhock, gradually extended the squad’s lead in the final third of the race. But the team never had any time to relax, as five different marques were battling in the top six positions, with the top three teams running on the same lap for a long time. In the end, the driver quartet won with an advantage of 2m 59s. The second-best Audi to cross the finish line was the R8 LMS ultra of the Audi race experience. Stratosphere jumper Felix Baumgartner and his team-mates Frank Biela, Marco Werner and Pierre Kaffer reached the finish in ninth place. With that, Baumgartner managed a much-noted, successful debut in the classic endurance race. Team Twinbusch was the third Audi squad to achieve a top ten placing. Following an impeccable drive, the privateer team with Dennis Busch/Marc Busch/Stefan Landmann/Manuel Lauck trailed the Audi race experience in tenth place at the checkered flag.
Race results

1 Haase/Mamerow/Rast/Winkelhock (Audi R8 LMS ultra), 159 laps
2 Bleekemolen/Simonsen/Menzel/Arnold (Mercedes), + 2m 59s
3 Zehe/Hohenadel/Bastian/Engel (Mercedes) – 2 laps
4 Henzler/Dumbreck/Ragginger/Imperatori (Porsche) – 2 laps
5 Mücke/Turner/Lamy (Aston Martin) – 2 laps
6 Klingmann/Baumann/Hürtgen/Tomczyk (BMW) – 2 laps
7 Primat/Götz/Heyer/Rehfeld (Mercedes) – 3 laps
8 Stuck/Sandritter/Brück/Rostek (BMW) – 5 laps
9 Baumgartner/Werner/Biela/Kaffer (Audi R8 LMS ultra) – 6 laps
10 Busch/Busch/Lauck/Landmann (Audi R8 LMS ultra) – 7 laps
23 Frey/Frankenhout/Bastien/Bollrath (Audi R8 LMS ultra) – 15 laps
34 Mies/Jöns/Kentenich/Schwager (Audi R8 LMS ultra) – 21 laps

Source Red Bull