Team BMW Motorsport - 24h Nürburgring - Bulletin 4
Nürburging 24 Hour Race, 12th-13th June 2004 - Race Bulletin 4
Team BMW Motorsport maintains its lead ahead of the final spurt.
Nürburg, 13th June 2004. The 24 Hour Race at the Nürburgring is about to enter
its final and decisive stage. After more than 20 largely trouble-free hours and
119 laps of the Eifel track, the number 42 BMW M3 GTR continues as overall
leader ahead of car number 43. In second place, running one lap behind the car
of German drivers Dirk Müller, Jörg Müller and Hans-Joachim Stuck, is the
second GT coupé competing under the auspices of Schnitzer Motorsport, with
drivers Pedro Lamy (PRT), Duncan Huisman (NLD) and Boris Said (USA) taking it
in turns at the wheel.
In the early morning hours, Stuck covered eleven laps of the 24.358 kilometre
track. Heavy rain and some dense fog in places proved a major hindrance, and
many drivers became embroiled in accidents or skidded with occasionally serious
consequences.
The drivers of Team BMW Motorsport were spared any such incidents. On lap 94,
Jörg Müller took over from Stuck at the wheel of car number 42. The 34-year-old
drove his ten laps on wet tyres while his team-mate Dirk Müller took to the
track with intermediates after the scheduled driver change on lap 104. "At the
outset of my stint it was wet on the Grand Prix circuit, while the rear section
of the course was dry. By the end it was the complete reverse," said Dirk
Müller of the challenging conditions he faced.
At the next driver change, when Stuck returned to the controls of the BMW M3
GTR on lap 115, the car was shod with intermediates again to cope with the
constantly changing track conditions.
The car number 43 has similarly been running on cut slicks since its pit stop
on lap 104. After lap 88, Huisman had handed the BMW M3 GTR over to Said, who
in turn vacated the cockpit for Lamy on lap 98.
With less than four hours to go in this 24-hour classic in the Eifel, Huisman
is driving in second place behind the wheel of the BMW M3 GTR. Stuck,
meanwhile, in the leading car number 42, is trying to increase the gap to his
team-mate.