It was about 3:40 AM on Sunday.

After almost 30 hours of no sleep I headed to the VIP lounge on top of pit 25 where our team was stationed hoping to doze off for a few minutes. Just as I entered the room, team owner Markus tells me, “Car #81 that was running hot is out somewhere between Schwalbenschwanz and Pflanzgarten”. The car in question is piloted by Rudi Seher, Olivier Fourcade, Tobias Neuser and Thomas Kappeler and had Thomas at the helm at the time.

Next thing I know, I am running down the stairs to the crew truck where the service truck was ready to go. Toni swung the door open and half dazed from exhaustion and sleeplessness, I jumped in.

With Chief Mechanic Futschi at the wheel we dashed to the cut road where our car had been towed out to.

One look at the car and Futschi knew repairing the car was out of question within the scope of this race.

Thomas was trying to overtake a slower Mini that has wandered off into the his line, forcing him into the armco.

We had very little time to kill, so we pulled the car onto the trailer.

If you look carefully, you can see the motor itself.

There wasn’t really much left beyond the front wheels anymore. We headed back and left the car at the auxiliary car park at the GP track paddock on the trailer under a tarpaulin cover.

I tagged along to the pits where the air was tense. Mechanics scrambled around Futschi and Team Manager Ulli Neuser. It was finally decided that we would leave out car #81 out of the race, trying to repair it would only steal precious time.

Time that we did not have.

Some of the voluntary helpers were taking power naps…

While those with more solid team duties pounded on with the help of energy drinks.

The leading car #80 with young gun Dennis Nägele at the wheel was expected in the pits in less than two laps. As Rudi and Dieter gazed across the pit lane, Toni broke out more bad news to me – car #80 is having trouble and has just rolled out of Breidscheid.

Shit.

It was like being in a trance, I was beyond exhausted and was no longer capable of clear thought. We were well prepared for the 24h race, we even had a man sit at Breidscheid with spare tyres and fuel, so that in the case of bad luck, we would have quick access to the car. But this wasn’t bad luck. This was more than that. Dennis’ brother, Kristian was already suited up and ready to go.

For a few moments I spaced out but then Dieter yelled, “Everyone to the trailer! Car #81 is on the trailer and we need to get it off, and go fetch car #80!”.

Drunk on team spirit, I ran in a way that’d put Forrest Gump to shame.

Car #80 had a 20 minute lead, and no one was ready to let even a second slip.

We dashed to the scene like a swarm of bees, and pulled the wrecked car #81 off the trailer. Mechanics running around everywhere, I once again lose track of what is going on. Without a second of thought, I jumped back into the service truck.

We have no time to lose, not even to tow the car back into the pits. Following radio traffic, the mechanics had assumed the driveshaft had given up so we loaded a driveshaft as well as our car jack system into the back of the service truck and along with the mechanics, we dashed once again to Breidscheid.

We were met at Breidscheid with a devastated Dennis.

The mechanics jacked the car up for a quick assessment and determined the diff to be faulty.

Dennis had had the lead for almost 14 hours, and he wasn’t gonna let anything get in his way.

We had a spare diff but it was at the pits. Wasting no time, everyone including Dennis pushed the limping BMW 330iM onto the trailer and headed to the pits.

Sitting next to Dennis, I was starting to understand what endurance racing is all about. Had everything been smooth, Dennis would be on his way to his first ever class victory at the 24h race at Nürburgring, a title that is worth its weight in gold. It is that time of the year when man and machine are thrashed within an inch of their lives and often beyond. There were no compromises, a well knit team strategy catered to one of the most demanding races on the planet.

The team strategy was to save the car. Dennis told me he was barely pushing the car, and Ulli confirmed this later when he told me that often at the start-finish the car was pretty much rolling rather than being throttled at night. Despite the best efforts from the driver and the team, material failure was letting Dennis down and there was nothing he or anyone could do about it.

This was the first endurance race I was properly involved with so my knowledge about it was slim, but nevertheless I tried to pull Dennis out of his gloominess. After all, we still had about 9 hours left in the race, in those 9 hours, anything could happen. Our 20 minute lead was being trimmed down by every passing second, and Dennis was restless, my efforts to console him weren’t making much of a difference. He wrote on the frosted service truck window, “F***”

By the time we got to the pits, our lead was long gone, but the game wasn’t over yet. As the onlookers watched, the team pushed the car into the pits.

The mechanics were on fire. We were to replace the broken diff and Bene was already at work.

As the team was hard at work under the car, Kristian prepared himself and got into the car, so that we do not waste another moment once the car ready.

Meanwhile Dennis explained the situation to his other co driver, Fabian Plentz. These are the our fastest drivers on the team, proving their talent of darting the car through the Green Hell more than a few times in the past.

Time damn nearly slowed down around me, I glimpsed shortly at Mark gunning for tools…

Dieter and Futschi were busy disassembling the rear axle of the car to get the diff out.

We had people under, over and around the car, never in my life have I seen this much dedication for victory.

Getting the diff out under this much stress and exhaustion was a herculean task, but that’s why we have the best mechanics in the world for the job!

An agonizing 57 minutes later, our car was out of the pits and onto the track. Our lead was long gone. The dream victory we needed were gone for now. As the car went out, I overheard on the team radio about the new team directions. The drivers were instructed to leave no concern for materials and gun it.

Right foot all the way to the firewall and beyond, the drivers were asked to push the cars within a inch of what they could do and then some more. There was no more avoiding the curbs, there was no more unnecessary liftoffs, class victory was still in far sight and the drivers had one goal to do – to either win, or failing to do so, wreck.

The magic of the 24 hours of Nürburgring was slowly making sense to me, this was no longer about money or fame, this was motorsports at its best and I was getting drunk from it. I retired to the crew truck to have a chat with our press man Jörg Eggert, and incidentally our CEO Harald Steeger was also grabbing a few Z’s in there. Sometime there I passed out of exhaustion and woke up three hours later.

Catching up with team owner Markus later, I was told that we had more bad luck. The car was driven for two rounds after which it developed more trouble with the oil pump at the rear axle. The car had come in twice and had been in the pits for the sum total of two hours and fifty seven minutes between the last three pit stops. We had dropped down to fourth place in class.

During this time Fabian had lack of power at Breidscheid. Turned out that the mount for the throttle linkage had snapped but our emergency response crew rushed to Breidscheid and repaired the unit in a jiffy.

I took a short break for a quick shower and a light breakfast, before heading back to the pits. The race was in its last rounds, and team was spent.

Team Chief Rudi Seher always kept a calm composure. Quite how he managed to do that, I have no idea.

Our car had climbed one spot and was posting unbelievably quick lap times but the glory of a class victory was gone. We just did not have the time to climb higher, the race was to end in a few hours.

A second place finish was theoretically within reach, and Thomas who was in the exited car #81 was at the pits along with his sister Tanja glued to the lap times screen.

The entire crew had gathered at the pits shortly before the checkered flag went down to wave our car down the start-finish.

Dominik, Christian, Raymond, Toni, they were all there. Toni especially who is the muscle behind the team, managed to smile despite having just a couple of hours sleep for an entire week.

Christian, who organized almost the entire event from the team side finally could breathe a sigh of relaxation. The race of the year is now behind him.

The weekend has been truly life changing for me, the exhaustion takes you over at some point. After flag went down, I couldn’t help but burst into tears. I haven’t done that in ages. World class motorsports photographer John Brooks later told me that endurance racing can do that to you. Never have I felt team involvement like this. Nothing comes even close.

Sure, a third place has to suffice for now, but that isn’t the end of the story. As you can tell from the faces, it never is.

I am just an intern as of now, but I can promise, the team will be back in 2011, harder, better, faster, stronger. And then we will paint the Nordschleife orange.

Here’s an obligatory photo of Frances’ boots to end my story.

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