A Top 40 shoot out took place for the first time at the Nürburgring 24 hour race this year. A total of 17 teams pre-qualified for the Top 40 based on previous practice results achieved at the three VLN races already held this year. The remaining 23 places were determined by the times set in the open qualifying sessions on Thursday and Friday at the 24 hour race.

Remember, the 24 hour race combines the Nürburgring Grand Prix track with the Nordschleife; the total length of the combined course is 25.9km. Going into the Top 40 the fastest car was the #15 Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 with a lap of 8:27.362.

A public raffle was used to determine the running order for the Top 40 shoot out. The cars set out at 10 second intervals and were given two flying laps to set their time in a session which ran for a total of 40 minutes.

Shawn Edwards in the #15 Black Falcon Mercedes improved his car’s time by an impressive 7.3 seconds (8:20.050), but that was still only enough to qualify in third place. Uwe Alzen in the #19 BMW Team Schubert Z4 GT3 was quickest (8:18.382) ahead of Chris Mamerow in the #26 Mamerow Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra (8:19.700).

A table showing all Top 40 times can be read after the break. Two cars failed to set a time, the Gemballa Racing McLaren MP4-12C missed out due to an engine and gearbox swap, while the Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R suffered minor accident damage. Both cars are expected to be fine for the race and will start form P39 and P40 respectively.

The #1 “Ferrari” P4/5 Competizione pictured above qualified in P30 (8:32.586) and is claiming to be the fastest ever Ferrari at the Ring.

Pos	No	Team	Driver	Car	Time
1	19	BMW Team Schubert	Uwe Alzen	BMW Z4 GT3	8:18.382
2	26	Mamerow Racing	Chris Mamerow	Audi R8 LMS ultra	8:19.700
3	15	Black Falcon	Shawn Edwards	Mercedes-Benz AMG	8:20.050
4	65	Hankook Team Heico	Lance David Arnold	Mercedes-Benz AMG	8:20.731
5	20	BMW Team Schubert	Dirk Adorf	BMW Z4 GT3	8:20.906
6	11	Wochenspiegel Manthey	Marc Lieb	Porsche 911 GT3	8:21.387
7	66	Hankook Team Heico	Pierre Kaffer	Mercedes-Benz AMG	8:21.604
8	2	Phoenix Racing	Frank Stippler	Audi R8 LMS ultra	8:21.819
9	17	BMW Team Vita4One	Pedro Lamy	BMW Z4 GT3	8:22.230
10	22	ROWE Racing	Thomas Jäger	Mercedes-Benz AMG	8:22.252
11	4	Speedhunters WRT	Edward Sandström	Audi R8 LMS ultra	8:22.404
12	3	Phoenix Racing	Marc Basseng	Audi R8 LMS ultra	8:22.426
13	9	Raeder Motorsport	Thomas Mutsch	Audi R8 LMS ultra	8:23.053
14	29	Marc VDS	Maxime Martin	BMW Z4 GT3	8:23.111
15	18	BMW Team Vita4One	Jens Klingmann	BMW Z4 GT3	8:23.179
16	7	Young Driver AMR	Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage	8:23.815
17	6	Young Driver AMR	Tomas Enge	Aston Martin Vantage	8:24.824
18	90	HARIBO Racing Team	Tommy Milner	Corvette Z06 R GT3	8:24.901
19	12	Wochenspiegel Manthey	Jochen Krumbach	Porsche 911 MR	8:26.901
20	21	ROWE Racing	Roland Rehfeld	Mercedes-Benz AMG	8:26.908
21	10	Manthey Racing	Marco Holzer	Porsche 911 GT3 R	8:27.705
22	28	Frikadelli	Christopher Brück	Porsche 911 GT3 R	8:28.616
23	27	Timbulli Racing	Norbert Siedler	Porsche 911 GT3 R	8:28.945
24	8	HARIBO Racing Team	Christian Menzel	Porsche 911 GT3 R	8:29.185
25	25	Audi race experience	Marco Werner	Audi R8 LMS ultra	8:29.546
26	777	H&R Spezialfedern	Christian Engelhart	Ford GT3	8:30.427
27	69	Dörr Motorsport	Rudi Adams	McLaren MP4-12C	8:31.567
28	24	Audi race experience	Florian Gruber	Audi R8 LMS ultra	8:31.798
29	59	Dörr Motorsport	Peter Kox	McLaren MP4-12C	8:32.089
30	1	Global Partner Enterprise	Fabrizio Giovanardi	P4/5	8:32.586
31	16	Black Falcon	Hannes Plesse	Mercedes-Benz AMG	8:34.769
32	83	Gazoo Racing	Akira Ida	Lexus LFA	8:36.190
33	47	Timbulli Racing	Marco Seefried	Porsche 997 GT3	8:36.933
34	150	Kremer Racing	Wolfgang Kaufmann	Porsche 911 KR	8:42.377
35	39	Dörr Motorsport	Rudi Adams	Porsche 911 Cup	8:42.508
36	54	David Horn	Chris Zöchling	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	8:43.999
37	50	Raceunion Teichmann	Andreas Gülden	Porsche 977 GT3 Cup	8:45.394
38	111	Raeder Motorsport	Stefan Landmann	Audi TT RS	8:46.885
39	30	Gemballa Racing		McLaren MP4-12C	–
40	44	Falken Motorsports		Porsche 911 GT3 R	–

 

40. ADAC Zurich 24h-Rennen, 17 to 20 May 2012:

The Top-40-Qualifying at a glance

Qualification

• VLN practice results: The 10 fastest of the practice sessions for each of three VLN rounds held prior to ADAC Zurich 24h race are qualified straight away.
• A prior entry is necessary and has to relate to the combination of team, vehicle and category.
• 24h race qualifying results: The top-40 positions not yet secured will be awarded according to 24h race qualifying results.
• Vehicles already qualified for the Top-40-Qualifying mustn’t contest the first 20 minutes of the qualifying sessions.

Course of the action

• The order the teams are going out in for the Top Qualifying will be determined in a public raffle on Friday afternoon.
• All the 40 cars will be positioned on the home straight.
• The cars will start into their top-qualifying laps in a 10-second rhythm.
• Following a warm-up lap on the Nordschleife, the top-40 competitors will make a flying start into their two qualifying laps.
• The times achieved will determine the top-40 grid positions for the 24h race.
• Cars that had to retire will be awarded grid positions at the end of the top 40, with the individual positions being determined in another raffle.
• At the start of the race, the teams involved have to use at least three slicks also used in the Top-40-Qualifying. Due to this regulation, the use of pure qualifying tyres is prevented.