Sunday marked the fourth successive entry in one of the world’s toughest circuit races for Kazunori Yamauchi. Since his first attempt at the Nürburgring 24hr in 2010, driving a Lexus IS-F, he’s driven a series of Schulze Motorsport-prepared Nissan GT-Rs, scoring class wins in 2011 and 2012.
For 2013 the team took a step up in speed and category to the top SP9 GT3 class – competing directly for the overall race win with factory BMW entries and world-renowned sports car drivers. For comparison, the fastest lap set in the IS-F in 2010 was 9’48, while this year’s #123 GT3 GT-R was lapping at 8’28 in qualifying…
With their times good enough to participate in the top 40 qualifying session, the team would start the gruelling race from 26th overall and in the early stages had pulled up to 19th – the big Nissan showing prodigious straight-line speed – but calamity struck just seven laps in.
As is often the case in motorsport, the cheapest, smallest possible part that could fail and wreck the car did just that. A small cooling hose popped, dumping the coolant and frying the engine. Recovering back to the pits, the team decided to replace the entire engine and put the car back out to run further – estimated to be an 8 hour job according to driver Michael Krumm.
Pulling out all the stops, the Schulze crew managed to complete the work in just 3 hours, ready to get the car back on track in 160th place – if not for a second bout of misfortune. The rain that had been in evidence since the start at 5pm had redoubled and combined with fog. With reduced visibility also coming about from nightfall, the race was red-flagged before the Schulze had managed a full racing lap.
With the poor weather persisting through the night, racing did not resume until just after 8am – with the field, now including the Schulze – lapping once behind the safety car before being released again. 3 hours down with only 10 remaining would always prove far too tall an order, but in the cold, damp morning conditions, the GT-R had every ounce of pace that the lead group had, sticking to the back of cars that had lapped it several times during the repairs.
Some minor issues near the end of the race caused a small delay for the #123, but they managed to hang on to finish 148th on the road and 136th overall once cars that failed to finish the final lap were taken into account.
The race went considerably better for GTPlanet member and Nürburgring veteran Christopher Zöchling whose #47 Car Collection Porsche 911 finished an amazing 22nd overall, 5th in the SP7 class.
Images courtesy of Red Square Images.
Another heart breaker was the one and only Mclaren Mp4-12c having it’s engine blow. Right as the race began essentially.
How did Mr. Kaz and Schulze motor guys team up? Would be interesting to hear.
They called him.
You should see the Nürburgring videos in GT TV :)
Four days of pure fun!
We even met Mr. Yamauchi two times. Such a nice and friendly person!
The GT-R was awesome! Too bad that they had to replace the engine.
Glad you had a great time :) Hopefully I’ll meet him soon.
I think I’m gonna regret making this joke, but I simply can’t resist:
Perhaps now Kaz will allow engine swaps in Gran Turismo.
Nah, but seriously, bad luck was the only thing that held them back. Hadn’t that engine been fried, or if it did so during the red flag period, I have very little reason to believe that Schulze Motorsport wouldn’t have been up there with the leaders.
Oh well. Better luck next year.
Hahaha “hey you can have mechanical failure and engine replacement why cant we?” Lmao
LOL, you get instant engine swaps every time you hit the guard rail at 50mph. Yup, that was a terrible (not mean) joke ;)
Too bad that the car failed. Anyway, the 8 hour break during the night partly ruined the race so I have high expectations for next year.
Can’t wait until next year. GT3 Nismo is a great car and could have been won without the cooling problems.
what an article! Great Job, Famino!
The car was blue all along?! Not black?
The first N24 GTR was black. The second one was blue. I thought this one was black, but it’s of a very dark shade of blue. It’s a very cool color since it looks blue only at certain angles.
I watched the last 4 hours of the race and enjoyed it quite a bit. I love the amount of team work, skill and cooperation involved in these endurance races
Better luck next time, Team Schulze. Hope we get a chance to drive the car and a good selection of the other SP9 GT3 cars. At least 3 this time for GT6 and maybe a full field for the class in GT7.
Also, I’m aware of the legal restrictions, but giving us the tuning capability to create our own viable online racing series would always be a plus.
OMT, I was surprised that they were allowed to change entire engine. Thanks for the pit video. The sights, sounds,… only the smells were missing. Awesome.
For the smells, simply rub your GT2 disc ;)
Teamwork at it’s finest. Is Schulze gonna participate in the LeMans 24hr. I hope so.
That would be awesome.
Great news now GtPlanet everyday all the way …
Shame it was so wet …!!!
It was not the rain that caused the problems, it was the engine failure :)
Well i instantly knew, this years GTR was a GT3 version, cause it was way to “fat” to be a “normal” GTR.