Historic Success for Patrick Long at the Nordschleife

Photos and report Willem J. Staat

American Patrick Long scored an unique win at the Nordschleife on May 28th. Togerther with his teammates Richard Lietz and Marco Holzer he won the 4th round of the popular Nordschleife Longdistance series with the works Porsche Hybrid 911 GT3 R. It was one of the first wins for an Hybrid powered car. According the history books Toyota claimed already the first one already 4 years ago with in an 24 Hrs Race in Japan. Though the Hybrid systems were different as the Porsche engine generates power through a rotor and the Toyota one through batteries. From the second until the last lap the leading Porsche was in the hunt for the overall win. Finally they won with nearly 7 secs. difference. 2nd and 3rd places were claimed by the Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R and the Phoenix Audi R8 LMS from Basseng, Fässler and Rockenfeller. Their final two laps around the Nordschleife were sensational. Running wheel to wheel it finally was Frenchman Romain Dumas who did beat Marc Basseng around the Nordschleife with 0.635 secs. A stunning and impressive performance from the Frenchman. For Australian V8 Superstar drivers Craig Lowndes and Warren Luff it was a disappointing trip to the Nordschleife, as Lowndes wrote the Audi R8 LMS off during qualifying. Both Australians were non-starters. The brand new Aston Martin Zagato V12 made it’s maiden appearance, though for the 24 Hrs next month a lot of work still needs to be done. For Porsche it was an historic win just one month before the famous 24 Hrs of the Nürburgring. The countdown for this popular event started with this one!