The historic, world-famous endurance race, in which motorsport history was also made, returns to the Nordschleife. The ADAC Total Energies 24H Nurburgring is ready to kick off its 51st edition on the historic German track. As many as 135 cars divided into 20 categories will be present, ready to do battle from the first to the last lap of the iconic race.
Also present from Japan was the Subaru Tecnica International Team with the WRX in its 14th appearance. The team involved in the competition arrived at the circuit on Tuesday 16 May, starting to set up their pits and tents in order to face the long weekend more comfortably. Work began on the car during the day in preparation for the technical inspections of the vehicle, which had already been passed in the qualifying race in April. After nothing significant was found, the car returned to the pits so that the mechanics could complete their work ahead of qualifying.
The four drivers arrived on Wednesday 17. Hideki Yamauchi and Takuto Iguchi directly from Japan in the afternoon, while Carlo Van Dam arrived in the morning from Thailand. The last was German Tim Schrick who joined the team for the meeting. Afterwards all the drivers went to the briefing, which takes place before the event, in which they learn some of the on-track behaviours to be adopted during the weekend.
The action on the circuit began yesterday Thursday 19 April with the first session, namely qualifying. First on track in Q1, which took place in the early afternoon, were Igughi and Schlick. The drivers had to record at least two timed laps to make their qualifying valid and the Japanese managed to get under the 9.00 wall, clocking a time of 8.59.081. In the evening the second qualifying session took place, in which it was the turn of van Dam and Yamauchi. Unfortunately, during the Dutchman's first run, the WRX suffered a problem with the cooling system that forced the driver to return to the pits. The mechanics intervened promptly and resolved the situation as best they could in order to return to the track as soon as possible. On his return to the track, the Japanese driver tried to set the best possible time over the remaining four laps, stopping the clock at 9.04.972, which was worth 50th place in the general classification.
Today, after changing the engine and making sure everything was running smoothly, the car took to the track for Q3 and in the hands of van Dam set its best time of the weekend in 8.56.622 to take 51st overall, but first in the SP T4 class, of which the WRX is a part, ahead of two Porsches.
Tomorrow will see the start of the eagerly awaited 24H and for a whole day the four drivers will take turns at the wheel trying to achieve the best possible performance in a historic race that promises to be a battle.