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The 24-hours of Nürburgring is a mammoth endurance race, officially called the "ADAC 24h Rennen Nürburgring" in Germany.
Nicknamed the "Green Hell" for its meandering nature through rolling hills and forests, the Nurburgring is a true test of both man and machine. It really is the Mt Everest of international motor racing. Everything about it is BIG...
The grid is huge - 210 cars in 3 groups!
And with 2-4 drivers per car, there are 800 or more drivers, and over 3,000 crew and drivers in total!
The track is long - 25.4 km and 73 corners - affectionately known as "green hell"!
In the time it takes to complete one lap, you could circle Pukekohe more than six times!
The spectators would overflow Auckland - 250,000 of them!
And it runs for 24 hours of non-stop flat-out racing!
The circuit used to be the German Grand Prix circuit until Niki Lauda's fiery crash in 1976 ended its grand prix career.
It is an incredibly unforgiving track. With the exception of a handful of bends, there's no run-off: if you fail to make a bend, you're going to hit something hard. Worse, most of the bends and crests are blind, so the chances of one accident leading to a second are relatively high. About a dozen people die there each year.
Kiwi Team Nürburgring was assembled from an idea by Auckland's Dr Greg Taylor to contest the world's largest endurance race. The goal was just to finish the marathon weekend. The driving team of Greg Taylor, Mike Eady, John McIntyre and Tim Martin, supported by a 18-strong team of Kiwis not only finished the marathon weekend - they won the Group N trophy too!
"This year is absolutely incredible," said five time event runner Mike Eady. "To bring a team like this together - a new car - the first time the guys have been here. Timmy, Johnny, Greg, they've all done outstanding jobs ... the crew is so organised and this result tops all other races I've had here. This is a whole New Zealand experience and we're going to party hard tonight."
Visit the Kiwi Team Nürburgring website.
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