The opening hours of the ADAC RAVENOL Nürburgring 24 Hours brought changing weather, heavy traffic, Code 60 interruptions and strategy gambles all around the Nordschleife. For Nico Menzel and the #17 Dunlop Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, it was a hectic opening phase that featured contact, changing tyre calls and strong pace once conditions dried out.

After handing the car over to Alessio Picariello, Menzel reflected on a busy triple stint aboard the Porsche he shares with Julien Andlauer, Dorian Boccolacci and Picariello.

Contact damage in busy opening stint

“I was in the car for three hours and maximised the drive time,” Menzel told GT REPORT. “I had a little contact, actually the first time in many, many years. For me, it was a typical racing incident. Ninety-five times out of a hundred they see me and leave space.

“This guy just turned in and obviously didn’t see me, so I had to go over the kerb and a bit onto the grass, but I still hit him. The fender was broken, so we had to change it.”

Porsche comes alive

The changing conditions around the Nordschleife also made tyre calls difficult throughout the opening phase of the race.

“Then we went out again on slick tyres, which was the wrong call,” he explained. “After that, we came in and made the right call with the intermediate tyres.

“But in the end, you just lose too much time over the course of the day.”

Once the circuit fully dried, however, the #17 Porsche suddenly came alive.

“Then we had one more full stint in fully dry conditions and I think we were the quickest car on track there,” Menzel said. “Slowly but surely it’s getting there.

“The car was super mega quick by then and really nice to drive. No idea why it wasn’t before, but sometimes racing is a bit of a miracle.”

Mystical night

The local driver also described the atmosphere around the Nordschleife during the night hours as one of the special moments of the race.

“It’s mystical in the night,” he said. “With fireworks going off here and there, for a second you realise this is something special.

“It’s great to experience, actually. It’s pretty cool, even though obviously we would’ve liked to be one lap ahead because we’re still P17 and trying to catch up.”