In front of a record crowd of around 280,000 spectators, BMW and ROWE Racing won the Nurburgring 24 Hour race with the #98 M4 GT# EVO driven by Kelvin van der Linde, Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn and Raffaele Marciello. It was BMWs 21st overall victory at the race and the second Intercontinental GT Challenge win of the season, after BMW M Team WRT won the Bathurst 12 Hour race back in early February.
As we’ve seen time and again this season, the M4 GT3 EVO didn’t qualify all that well, but it came alive in the race. The #98 M4 GT3 EVO didn’t even make it to the final round of qualifying for the top cars, ending up seventeenth on the grid. Farfus started the race and made it up into the top ten on the first lap. After a long red flag delay due to a power outage in the paddock, Kelvin van der Linde took over where Farfus left off, going from ninth to third in two laps.
As the race went on, the battle for the lead came down to the #98 BMW and the #911 Porsche. Marciello was putting pressure on Kevin Estre in the Porsche when Estre made contact with an Aston Martin GT4 car. Estre was able to carry on, but the Aston Martin ended up on its roof on the side of the track. That was a key moment. The Porsche finished first on the track in front of the BMW but was given a 100-second time penalty for the accident, which moved the BMW into first place for the win.
Drivers (left to right) Kelvin van der Linde, Augusto Farfus, Raffaele Marciello and Jesse Krohn celebrate their victory.
The win was Farfus’ second win after a fifteen-year wait. ” We are blessed to be part of this show and to race in front of these people,” he said. “I celebrated my first major victory for BMW M Motorsport here 15 years ago, and to stand here again is something special – and with the only BMW M4 GT3 EVO. We came here with just one car, but in the end, we represented BMW in the best possible way. Our goal was to finish the race, and in the end, we did so as winners. Bringing this trophy home is also a big reward for the people in Munich.” The win was van der Linde’s third (after winning with Audi in 2017 and 2022) and the first for both Krohn and Marciello.
The ’Ring 24 Hour was also a very successful race for the new M2 Racing, which was driven by works drivers Jens Klingmann, Charles Weerts, and Ugo de Wilde, along with motorsport journalist Michael Bräutigam. That car won the SP 3T class and was a strong final endurance test before the car goes on sale to customer teams. BMW teams also won five other class victories in the race.
BMW will be contesting another big 24-hour race next weekend with the Spa 24 Hour in Belgium, which is the largest GT3-spec race in the world.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy Gruppe C Photography]
