With tailwind to the 24h Nürburgring
14.05.2023
After the successful dress rehearsal as part of the 24-hour Nürburgring qualifiers, in which Frikadelli Racing was able to achieve overall victory in the 4-hour race, the team from Barweiler is now facing the big season highlight with the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring (May 18-21, 2023). at. Despite renewed changes in the Balance of Performance (BoP), the team of team boss Klaus Abbelen will give everything to achieve a top 10 placement.
“After we initially struggled with a few problems and teething troubles when developing the new Ferrari 296 GT3, we have now successfully sorted out most things together with Rinaldi Racing. At the 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers, the vehicle ran through Sunday's race for the first time without any problems, which shows that we have found a good setup. In the 24-hour race we want to cover the distance without incident or penalties and try to achieve a good result. Unfortunately, what doesn't play into our hands is that the BoP was changed again to our disadvantage. The training sessions will show whether we will still be able to compete with the other manufacturers with this classification,” explains team boss Klaus Abbelen.
At this year's edition of the 24h Nürburgring, David Pittard, Felipe Laser, Nick Catsburg and Earl Bamber alternate in the cockpit of the "fastest meatball in the world". The international line-up of drivers has a great deal of experience in a wide variety of long-distance classics. While Catsburg was already able to win the 24h Nürburgring in 2020, Bamber was on top of the podium twice at the 24h Le Mans. Felipe Laser and David Pittard have also already achieved success with a wide variety of manufacturers on the Nordschleife.
Frikadelli Racing's best result so far in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring dates back to 2008. At that time, Sabine Schmitz, Klaus Abbelen, Kenneth Heyer and Dr. Edgar Althoff on third place overall. Since then, several top 10 placements have followed twice around the clock at Hatz, most recently in 2020 when seventh place overall was achieved.
For Frikadelli Racing, the 24-hour weekend begins on Thursday with the first two qualifying sessions. Another session follows on Friday, before the top qualifying begins in the evening, which decides the final starting grid. The #30 Ferrari 296 GT3 is already pre-qualified for this. The race starts at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. Motorsport fans have the opportunity to follow the race live over the entire distance on NITRO or in the stream at www.24h-rennen.de.
