When we heard that Michael Schumacher would be driving a modern day F1 car around the Nordschleife we were excited. We should have known better. It promised so much and delivered so little.

Cruelled by F1′s in season testing restrictions, which limited the speed Michael could do, and coupled with a marketing exercise from Mercedes-Benz it was a total fizzer.

Such a shame, because it could have been so good. Just as well Mercedes ended up winning the main show, the Nürburgring 24 hour race, so that it could walk way from the Ring with some dignity in tact.

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The #9 Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS GT3, driven by Bernd Schneider, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Sean Edwards and Nicki Thiim, has won a dramatic Nürburgring 24 hour race. Can there ever be any other kind?

Around nine hours were lost to rain and fog, but the time that was left delivered a worthy endurance test. Amazingly, it is the first win at the Nürburgring 24 hour race for Mercedes, Black Falcon and Bernd Schneider—all established stars of endurance racing—and we salute them for their well-deserved victory.

Special mention, too, for Jeroen Bleekemolen who departed mid-race to be with his wife for the birth of their twins. No, we’re not joking!

In second place, with a charging Maxime Martin at the wheel, was the #25 Team Marc VDS BMW Z4. Martin was one of the main stars of this race. He put in a sterling performance at the restart to take the lead from Aston Martin.

As the 24 hour mark was closing in it looked like Mercedes would clean sweep the podium, but Martin interrupted the party by reeling in the two Rowe Racing Gullwings in spectacular fashion. Perhaps, if the charging BMW driver had another 20 minutes or so he may have been able to pressure the #9 car as well. If nothing else we thank him for the exciting finish to the race.

That left the two Rowe Racing Mercedes and the small matter of a podium place to fight for. Despite a fine scrap that saw positions swapped the #23 car had to pit for extra fuel, leaving the #22 machine to claim third place.

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The 41st Nürburgring 24 hour race has been run and won. And even though we lost around nine hours due to poor weather the race delivered plenty of drama and excitement.

Final placings for the Australian and New Zealand drivers has been compiled below. Special mentions to Paul Stubber (first Aussie across the line); Rob Thomson (winner of Class SP6); Mal Rose and Peter Leemhuis (third in class SP8); and, finally, Wayne Moore, Michael Eden and Maurice O’Reilly the Kiwi trio who overcame adversity to finish a race that was lost inside the first hour.

It was fantastic to see Wayne’s car flying the NZ flag in the closing stages!

Once again, well done to all who made the long trek from down under. Your efforts are certainly appreciated by AUSringers and we wish you well for the future.

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At the head of the field Mercedes has three cars in the top four and with only two hours to go can be excused for starting to think about victory. It’s the #9 Black Falcon car out in front as we speak with a pair of Rowe Racing Mercs split by the #25 Team Marc VDS BMW Z4.

The #144 Renault Clio Cup with Australian Christopher Gleeson hasn’t completed any more laps since our last update so we can assume it is out of the race. Alas, we’re not sure why.

Updates on the remaining Aussies and Kiwis after hour 22 can be seen below.

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Things have settled into a nice rhythm at the Nürburgring 24 hour race now. Although the leaders are mixing things up a bit with pit stops at the like. Currently leading is the #23 Rowe Racing Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.

Mercedes is yet to win the Nürburgring endurance classic so they’ll have all their fingers crossed that they have a car in with a chance in the final hour.

Mal Rose and his buddies in the #006 Aston Martin have fought back into the top 100 after their incident, let’s hope they can keep going strong to the flag.

Similarly, Wayne Moore’s #190 BMW M3 is slowly building up its number of laps. They’re still right down the bottom of the field, but at least they’re getting some decent track time.

Updated positions for the Aussies and Kiwis with just four hours left to the end of the race can be seen below.

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The GPSauge app for your iPhone or iPad is another excellent way to follow the Nürburgring 24 hour race. Even better, the app is free to download. Once you’ve done that you will need to download the Nürburgring track map (in app) and voila, all the cars can be tracked via GPS. Wunderbar!

An hour of action has passed since the cars went back out on track. In the outright lead the #007 Aston Martin has struggled in the still very wet conditions and has dropped down to thirteenth place.

In the lead now is the #25 BMW Z4 GT3 with Maxime Martin revelling in the wet.

Since our last update we’ve had confirmation that Ric Shaw in the #72 Aston Martin has retired due to accident damage (thanks to Jon for the update). The Mal Rose #006 Aston Martin has also lost time due to an accident, details are scant but the car is out and circulating again.

Updated positions for the Aussies and Kiwis after 16 hours can be seen below.

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Since our last update, more than five hours ago, rain has continued to stall the 2013 Nürburgring 24 hour race. The good news the cars will be moving behind the safety car from 8:00am local time (4:00pm AEST) with a green flag to be waved as soon as possible. That will leave under nine hours of racing.

If you’re watching the live stream you’ll see there is some action in the pits as cars start to form up on track for the restart.

Clearly the weather has been a real shame—the red flag was first waved after 9 hours 34 minutes—and has robbed teams, drivers and fans of almost nine hours racing. To give that an Australian context, that’s almost enough time to run one and a half Bathurst 1000 “endurance” races.

Darkness has descended on the Eifel region and with it came heavy fog and rain. The worst area affected is the drop into the Fuchsröhre and it’s been bad enough to force the race into a temporary red flag.

The red flag was first waved around three hours ago and race organisers say there’ll be as much as two hours notice before racing resumes. It’s around 2:30am German time and we can’t really see anything happening until after sunrise.

There was some confusion as to the race order but we can tell you the #007 Aston Martin is leading the race, with 32 laps completed, from the #18 and #50 Manthey Racing Porsches.

Updated placings for our Aussie/Kiwi drivers can be seen below. There’s good news, too, Wayne Moore and his team have managed to get back out and have posted 13 laps. No doubt the extended break will allow them to ensure their repairs remain in good working order.

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Two hours have already elapsed in the 2013 Nürburgring 24 hour race and up front the #4 Audi and #007 Aston Martin spectacularly fighting for the lead, as we write the Aston Martin has just taken the lead.

For the Aussies and Kiwis there was drama early with the #190 BMW of Wayne Moore suffering damage in the first hour. Almost as soon as that was shown on the live stream the Australian crewed #90 BMW lost control near Aremberg and punted off a Toyota 86. It appeared there was oil on the track which contributed to the mayhem.

Unfortunately it appears as though the race is over for both cars. Updates for the 11 Aussie/Kiwi cars can be seen after the break.

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Like Mal Rose, New Zealander Wayne Moore has been a great supporter of AUSringers over the years. And, also like Mal, he’s ready for a milestone race at the Ring in 2013. Can you believe it will be Wayne’s 20th consecutive Nürburgring 24 hour race. What an effort!

And it’s a feat that hasn’t escaped the notice of the official race website, which said: “His record book features two class wins, nine podiums and an amazing 17 finishes with the most different racing cars, such as Seat León Supercopa, VW Golf, VW Bora, VW Polo, Suzuki Swift, BMW M3.

“This year, Moore contests the race together with his compatriots Maurice O’Reilly and Michael Eden as well as Denmark’s Niels Borum. He once again will race a BMW M3 E36, entered by the Danish Scangrip Racing Team for the V5 category.”

Before departing New Zealand Wayne sent in the following words for us to share:

The Endless Race

New Zealand endurance race car driver Wayne Moore will experience a memorable weekend when he races his 20th consecutive Nürburgring 24 Hour Race with the 41st annual staging of the iconic German event on 17–20 May.

Nürburgring is the infamous race circuit that Jackie Stewart labelled the ‘Green Hell’ and it almost claimed Niki Lauda’s life in a fiery crash in 1976 before F1 cancelled its annual booking and deemed the race track too dangerous. Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson believes the mountainous Nordschleife part of The Ring claims one death a week when open for tourist laps as a public toll road after bike, car, tyre and fuel companies have driven thousands of torturing kilometres testing their products during the day.

Moore has raced on the gruelling Eifel Mountains circuit every year since 1994 and that feat has attracted international interest even before the race starts this year. One German reporter claiming aside of German nationals no race driver in the world has driven more N24 races. That’s quite an achievement when you consider the 24 hour spectacle which is the culmination of days of supporting races accepts entries from 200 cars and attracts up to 800 drivers from 30 nations around the world.

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A quick shout out for Mal Rose who is about to tackle the Green Hell for his tenth Nürburgring 24 hour race in a row. That’s a fine achievement for any racer and even more admirable for the fact Mal travels half way around the world to compete.

Here’s a few words Mal shared with AUSringers prior to heading off to Germany a few weeks back:

It all started in 2004 by shipping three Mirage Cup Cars to Germany after our successful run at the 2002 and 2003 Bathurst 24hr events, I found these cars could do almost 24hr without a brake pad or tyre change!

Then in 2005 I shipped two Mirage Cup Cars to see if we could win our class, after being runner up in 04. We were leading for most of the day until an electrical problem ruined our chances. My friend Adam Wallis raced with me in 2005 and got the bug for the 25.3 km Nordschleife race track. After the race he asked, “Why don’t we run the ex-Perkins V8 Holden?”

So in 2006 we turned up in a slightly modified V8 Supercar with 600hp on tap. Unfortunately Adam had a minor crash and we went home to rebuild determined to complete the 2007 race. And we did!

In 2008 I had purchased my own V8 Supercar from Garry Rogers and teamed up with Peter and Tony to enjoy the best 24hr endurance race in the world for GT and touring cars.

We again raced in 2009 with my V8 Holden and during the race we had a clutch slipping. We took the time to fix it and even though we ran for the final hour and I crossed the line we were classified as non-finishers.

Then in 2010 I teamed up for the first time in another team, this time a Subaru STi with Mike Rimmer and Peter Venn. This would be another challenge as it was left-hand drive and all-wheel drive, all new to me! We had a great race with some 30 cars in our class.

In 2011 again I took back my V8 Holden with Peter and Damien. The car had just raced in the Spa-Francorchamps 12hr race in Belgium the weekend before and without going into too much detail the engine overheated and we packed up and went home to work the problem out. The car was rebuilt and raced eariler this year in the 2013 Bathurst 12hr (we won our class and finished 12th).

Last year the opportunity came up to race for a factory team with the Aston Martin Test Centre based at the Nurburgring. I was competing in a V8 Vantage with 4.7 litre engine, paddle shift, ABS, traction control and of course left-hand drive. We finished third in class and 33rd outright.

Now, for my tenth race I’m back with Aston Martin again. It’s special, too, because it’s Aston Martin’s 100th anniversary. Let’s hope we can maintain Aston’s 100 per cent finishing record.

Hear, hear. All the best to Mal and his teammates.

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