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Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Gruppe C Photography Kelvin van der Linde set the pace for BMW in a wet second qualifying session for the Nürburgring 24. The three-and-a-half hours of Qualifying 2 began with a wet track in daylight after heavy rain and hail shortly before the session got under way. But the circuit did gradually begin to dry out a little and van der Linde was able to clock a 9:19.884 at the wheel of the No. 1 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO around midway through the session after darkness had descended. However, another heavy rain shower then prevented any further improvements and left van der Linde’s pacesetting time around a minute slower than the fastest set in the drier Qualifying 1 . Van der Linde’s best effort was four seconds faster than the No. 24 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Laurin Heinrich, who clocked a 9:23.827 shortly before the rain returned in the car that had earlier crashed in Q1. Porsches were also third and fourth fastest with the No. 911 Manth...

Source: Sports Car 365

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/BMW Connor De Phillippi says a top-five overall finish for the unique BMW M3 Touring 24H in the Nürburgring 24 would be a “dream weekend” for the program that started as an April’s Fools joke just over a year ago. The 2017 N24 winner has teamed up with his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship co-driver, and fellow American, Neil Verhagen, plus Ugo de Wilde and Jens Klingmann in the unique racer based on the BMW M4 GT3 EVO. BMW first flirted with the idea of taking an estate/wagon car to the Nordschleife with a post on April 1, 2025, but then made it a reality when the green light was given. “We kind of got some sniffs of it at the end of last year,” De Phillippi told Sportscar365. “We were told we’re going to drive it in January. When we found out we were going to do it, we were over the moon about it. “It’s obviously a very, very special car and program and the fact that they built it and did ...

Photo: SRO Japan Cup Sena Sakaguchi says he has “high expectations” for the opening round of the SRO Japan Cup season this weekend at Sportsland Sugo as he prepares to give K-tunes Racing’s new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R its race debut. The Toyota SUPER GT regular will share the No. 96 Corvette with Bronze-rated Kazunori Suenaga in what will mark the Z06 GT3.R’s first event in the hands of a Japanese team. Sakaguchi will contest this week’s opener as well as the final round at Suzuka in September, with Nirei Fukuzumi — otherwise engaged as part of KCMG’s Nürburgring 24 effort this week — taking over the Fuji and Okayama rounds. Sugo will mark Sakaguchi’s first appearance in SRO competition, although he has GT3 experience from three seasons in SUPER GT’s GT300 class with the Okayama Toyopet-owned K-tunes squad and two outings in Super Taikyu last year. Based on his first impressions of the Corvette from a shakedown held a...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Maro Engel is aiming to return Mercedes-AMG to the top step of the Nürburgring 24 podium, ten years after his and the brand’s last victory in the Eifel endurance classic. The German manufacturer hasn’t won the event since 2016, when it locked-out the top four with its then-new Mercedes-AMG GT3s and Engel was part of the driver crew in the winning No. 4 machine. Engel narrowly missed out on victory in 2018 and finished third in 2022, but has failed to finish the last three races, at the wheel of GetSpeed-entered Mercedes-AMGs. “The hunger to win the race has always been there, it’s always been a very special race for me,” he told Sportscar365. “Personally, we had a few good chances. We came close in 2018, but it just hasn’t clicked in the previous nine years, so hopefully we can make it lucky tenth.” The veteran Mercedes-AMG factory driver will race the No. 80 Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol entry alongside Luca Stolz, Fabi...