What a thriller: Rowe BMW has won the 53rd edition of the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring, prevailing in an epic duel against Manthey's “Grello.” After 141 laps, Brazilian Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn from Finland, Swiss Raffaele Marciello, and Kelvin van der Linde from South Africa had a 1:17.810 minute lead over the Porsche #911 with Frenchman Kevin Estre, Ayhancan Güven from Turkey, and Austrian Thomas Preining. The “Grello” crew had crossed the finish line first, but were given a time penalty of 1:40 minutes. Manthey had protested against the penalty, but this was rejected by the race stewards shortly before the end of the race.

Third success for Kelvin van der Linde
For Rowe Racing, the triumph is their second overall victory in the “Eifel Marathon” after 2020, and for record winner BMW, it is their 21st success. Kelvin van der Linde, who was the final driver two days after his 29th birthday and fought a heated duel with pole-sitter Kevin Estre, gave himself the perfect gift with his third victory after 2017 and 2022. Augusto Farfus won for the second time after 2010. Raffaele Marciello and Jesse Krohn won for the first time. Third place went to the #54 Dinamic Porsche with Bastian Buus (Denmark), Matteo Cairoli (Italy), Loek Hartog (Netherlands), and Joel Sturm.
Rowe Team Principal Hans-Peter Naundorf said: “Things looked very different for us on Thursday. We had completely different thoughts then. But of course, you always aim to win. Today, it wasn't the fastest car that won, but the team that made the fewest mistakes. That was us, and we're proud of that.”

Early focus on a duel between Porsche and BMW
While the “Grello” pulled away from the field right after the start from pole position and seemed to lead the entire race, the Rowe BMW had to work its way up from behind. But Farfus made up seven places on the first lap as the starting driver, and Kelvin van der Linde moved up another six positions in the first two laps after the restart. After the #33 Falken Porsche, which had been in second place, was unfortunately forced to retire in the evening following an accident through no fault of its own, the #1 Scherer Audi, the defending champion, had to retire early, and both Getspeed Mercedes-AMGs had to retire with technical problems, it was clear early on that it would come down to a duel between the “Grello” and the BMW.

Final act with Kevin Estre and Kelvin van der Linde
After 100 laps, both cars ran into a Dörr Aston Martin during a Code 60 phase. Kevin Estre in the Porsche touched it while lapping, the Aston Martin spun into the guardrail, was catapulted back onto the track and rolled over. Raffaele Marciello in the Rowe BMW was just able to avoid it. The race director imposed a 1:40 minute time penalty on the “Grello” for this action, but Manthey lodged a protest. On the track, Augusto Farfus took advantage of an unfortunate Code 60 phase for the “Grello” on lap 114, then sucked himself up on the Döttinger Höhe and took the lead for the first time in the race. Seven laps later, the Manthey Porsche regained first place at the next pit stop, setting up an exciting final duel between Kevin Estre and Kelvin van der Linde.

Power failure instead of fog – race interruption nonetheless
On Saturday afternoon, the race was interrupted for the tenth time in the history of the 24h Nürburgring – and, unusually for the Eifel region, it was not rain or fog that caused the interruption, but a major power failure. A defective cooling system, responsible for controlling and cooling the air conditioning units in large parts of the pit building, overheated because the summer temperatures required an unusually high amount of cooling power. After the problem was fixed, the race was restarted at 7:45 p.m. after a break of around 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Midsummer in the Eifel pushes people and equipment to their limits
For the first time since 2001, it remained dry in the Eifel throughout the entire week of the event. Temperatures of up to 30 degrees Celsius attracted more spectators than ever before, but also pushed people and equipment to their limits both on and off the track. There were many collisions, some of them serious, but all drivers involved remained largely uninjured.