The 46th running of the ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 Hours is the greatest challenge for endurance racers of all skill levels and production based cars of all kinds.
This year, a contingent of 10 current and 13 former drivers from the Autobacs Super GT Series will take part in this year’s running of the great race around the fabled “Green Hell”, including four former champions of the series and several other former race winners from both the GT500 and GT300 class past and present.
Nissan Super GT driver João Paulo de Oliveira won the opening round of the Brazilian Stock Car Championship this past weekend, driving in tandem with reigning series champion Daniel Serra in the prestigious Corrida de Duplas (“Race of Doubles”) at the famous Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Oliveira drove a strong opening stint in wet conditions, giving Serra a chance to take the victory over the duo of Formula 1 legend Rubens Barrichello and sports car ace Filipe Albuquerque by just 2 seconds at the end of an exhilarating 1-hour race.
Autobacs Super GT Series alumni Loïc Duval, Romain Dumas, and Andrea Caldarelli were among the drivers who stood on the podium at the end of a record-breaking running of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
As the race-winning #5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPI-V.R of Filipe Albuquerque, João Barbosa, and Christian Fittipaldi took the overall victory and obliterated the 24-hour distance record, Duval and Dumas, driving the #54 CORE Autosport Oreca 07-Gibson with Jon Bennett and Colin Braun, took third place, completing a record 808 laps and finishing as the top Pro-Am team in the race.
Caldarelli, driving the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 in the GT Daytona sub-class, took a podium finish as Lamborghini scored their first-ever victory in a major 24 hour endurance race.
The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, on January 27-28 from Daytona International Speedway, might very well be the most star-studded 24 hour endurance race of 2018, even more so than the 24 Hours of Le Mans. With a deep premier category featuring two active Formula 1 drivers and countless former winners at this race, and Le Mans, and all over the world, it’s truly a global marquee event.
Across the 50 cars, and nearly 200 drivers of all skill levels, nine drivers who’ve raced in Super GT up through the 2017 season will take part, from the star-studded Prototype class, to the all-out brawls in the GT Le Mans and GT Daytona classes. They’re headed up by the most recent Super GT drivers of that group – and one that is set to join the grid in 2018.
Super GT World