Nürburgring 24 Hours driver report: Thomas Kiefer - Race finish

After a crash shortly before the red flag on Saturday night, Thomas Kiefer thought it was all over for the #320 Four Motors Bioconcept-Car Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. However, the red flag allowed for overnight repairs to get the biofuel-powered Porsche back in the race to take the Sunday morning restart. Together with co-drivers Thomas von Löwis of Menar, ‘Smudo’ and Charles Kauffman, the young German scored a 45th place overall at the finish and the AT class win.

Thomas Kiefer: “What a rollercoaster ride! Just before the red flag my teammate had a big accident between Bellof-S and Schwalbenschwanz. He lost the car in the wet and the front of the car was heavily damaged. He was not hurt which was the most important thing, but I thought, OK, that’s it. But then the red flag came out and we thought there might be a chance to somehow fix it. The mechanics did an amazing job repairing the car. Of course, it wasn’t like before the accident because we still had some damage that cost a bit of performance, but we could restart.

“I did the restart and was just trying to follow the cars in front on the first two laps to see what’s going on, to be on the safe side. It was still raining and wet, but the conditions were much better than in the evening because of the visibility.

“After my stint we made some slight changes to the car because the track was getting drier. We really had a good and solid performance without any incidents on track and no wrong tyre calls which at that time in the race was one of the key elements.

“We needed to regain some places because we lost a lot because of the crash – I think we lost a couple of positions and one complete lap that we managed to get back in the end.

“I was in the car for the very last stint which is of course something special. Doing the start was great, the second start was great as well, and now for the first time brining the car back home was a lot of pressure. We were actually trying to get back into the top 50 because during the night we fell back to around P70. I was trying to push as much as I could while still trying to somehow keep it safe which wasn’t that easy.

“20 minutes before the end I caught up with some of the other cars that were on the same lap as us and I could overtake them. That was a nice fight as well until the very last section! I was overtaken at Galgenkopf because my tyres were complete gone, the track was just too dry for them. Luckily, I could get the position back after slipstreaming on the long Döttinger straight.

“P50 was the target at that moment in the race and I could get it just two corners before the finish line which was a great feeling. We moved up a couple more positions as well because some other cars were not classified because of some issues with the regulations. That means P45 for us in the end, which feels like a little victory after we were actually out of the race and came back to get the first-place trophy in class. This will be a nice memory and definitely a race to remember.

“I want to thank the team and everyone who was involved to make the event happen, and thanks to GT REPORT as well and all the media who did a good job trying to bring the track action to all the spectators that couldn’t be with us at the track this time.

“Now I will need one or two days to recover, but I’m already looking forward to the next one!”

Please consider making a donation so we can keep bringing you our best content from the racetrack.