Hamburg 24hrs grid, left to right in order of qualification :Werksteam Ferrari 50, SRC Weser Ems Mercedes C9 ,SRC Mittelrhein Mercedes CLK ,SRC Kiel Porsche 962 , Amateurteam Mercedes CLK .

High Fives at Hamburg
In the same weekend at the Daytona race, 5 teams contested the 5th edition of the Hamburg 24 hrs on the 5 lane 49m track of the Hamburg Renn center.
Special feature in this North German classic are the tire stops that are influenced by the ...weather!.

"Regenmeisters"
The teams have 2 compounds to chose from; Sponge and Full rubber GP. Contrary to "1/1" racing the softest compound is the "dry" tire and the hard ones are for in the "wet". These tire rules bring a nice touch of realism to the race. Racecontroll carefully monitors the Hamburg weather conditions and when it starts to rain it declares "wet conditions" and all teams have to come in to change sponge for full rubber. As these have significantly less grip the true "Rainmasters" will come to the fore.

"Live updates"
The 24 hrs organisation supplies race updates in German and MPG video's on their website. As usual their Roving Reporter will publish a Race report on the SRND forum. We'll try to post a summarized English version on this site after the Race weekend.

Summarized 24 hrs Rules
The Hamburg 24 hrs car have standard Plafit Full Racing Chassis and a min Total weight of 200 gram. Motors are hand-out Black Carrera with fixed 14 pignon. Spur gear is free. As it is a full 24hrs with night conditions lights are a must and offer a spectacular sight.
Dry weather tires are Free Sponge, Rain tires must be Full rubber made by GP Speedtires.


For more rules info on the SRND site click here go to "Reglements", then select 24hrs.

Hamburg 24 hrs Race Report 03 Feb

In the same weekend as the Daytona race, 5 teams contested the 5th edition of the Hamburg 24 hrs on the 5 lane track in Hamburg's Renn center. On home ground the Werksteam, winners of the last 4 events had to be counted as the race favorites. Sister team the "Amateurs" was keen on a upgrade and had spent most of the week on some serious "proffesional" practice sessions.

Race favorites
The five teams started their race around the clock at 12:00 hrs. In the heat of the race a group of 3 cars pulled away as the Group C's from Weser-Ems and Kiel encountered a series of gear and motor trouble. Lady luck was not on their side as shortly after sundown both teams were back in the pits to fix their lights.
Race favorite Werksteam Hamburg continued in the lead, but its sister "Amateur" team switched to full attack mode as the F50 had to change a pignon.
Just before the 8 hr mark the Ferrari is once more in the Pits, the Amateur CLK flashes past to take the lead. What a change of fortune, totally unhappy with their car in free practice they now sense an opportunity to dethrone the "Kings of the Nordschleife".

Midnight Blues
Just before midnight, the F50 is back on top but is also set to sing the blues. After climbing the ladder with fast drives and even faster pitstops it's down to the basement to fix their lights.
40 laps are lost, the F50 leaving the pits just 2 laps ahead of Mittelrhein's CLK. Throughout the night the Amateurs defend their lead on the "Works" F50 . With "Das Werksteam" pulling out all the stops to gain some ground, Mittelrhein can't follow the pace and slips back 40 laps. But steady drives keep the CLK firmly in third. Kiel and Weser-Ems fight for 4 place, but the battle is fought more in the pits than on the track.

The break of dawn
The most dangerous moment in any endurance; the small hours just before dawn. When everybody is sleepy accidents happen. Around five o clock the Amateurs wake up with a bang, a human error resulted in a heavy crash and the CLK is in need of some serious repairs. Shit happens, and the F50 thankfully uses the opportunity to take a firm hold on the lead

When the Flag drops.
The only hope for the Amateurs is a reversal of fortune off "das Werks Wagen" which doesn't happen. In the last four hours the leaderboard remains unchanged. The black and green F50 crosses the finishline without any further problems. Werksteam celebrates its 4th consecutive win, as Kiel and Weser-Ems contemplate what went wrong. But at least they all made it to the finish so High fives for all in Hamburg!



P.s: I just found out that it was actually the sixth edition of the 24 hrs, but will leave the headline as it is...High sixes in Hamburg may be more correct, but it doesn't sound as good!