Nurburgring 24 hrs

Priaulx wins Nürburgring 24h,

2005-05-08, 23:34:01
For the second consecutive year, BMW Motorsport team claimed a 1-2 finish in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. And once again FIA Touring Car Championship’s stars gave their important contribution to the German Manufacturer’s 18th victory in the marathon race.

2004 FIA European Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx shared the winning car with Duncan Huisman, Pedro Lamy and Boris Said; while Dirk and Jörg Müller – currently first and second in the FIA World Touring Car Championship and winners of last year’s 24 Hour-race – finished as runner-up together with Hans-Joachim Stuck.

It was not an easy race for the two BMW M3 GTR cars run by Schnitzer Motorsport. In the early stages rain made life hard to all the competitors. Both Huisman and Dirk Müller went off the track, on lap 6 and 15 respectively, meaning that their cars dropped back and were forced to recover. Midway through the race the BMW Motorsport teams managed to reach the top: Dirk-Jörg-Stuck were leading in the #1, from Priaulx-Huisman-Lamy-Said in the #2.

However, on lap 61 car #1 pitted with clutch problems and lost 70 minutes for repairs. This handed the lead for good to the sister car. In the final hours of the race the Müllers and Stuck regained second position – five laps behind the winners – to give BMW another double win.

FIA WTCC Independents’ Trophy leader, Marc Hennerici, was also a factor in the race. Sharing a Super 2000 BMW 320i with Claudia Hürtgen, Torsten Schubert and Ralph Bohnhorst, Hennerici claimed a brilliant 11th position overall and victory in the A3 class (second was STCC-champion Göransson and Björk).