iRacing Special Events

Fischer Motorsport runners-up again in Nürburgring 24 Hours

by Fischer Motorsport PR

April 25, 2021 05:45 PM CET 683 Views

In an incredible race, Fischer Motorsport takes P2 in the iRacing Nürburgring 24 Hours for the second straight year. The No. 84 BMW M4 GT3 team with Manuel Mayer, Tobias Abel, Benjamin Fischer and Kyle Birnie put on a fantastic race throughout, overcame a number of close calls and kept the car clean, to take the second step on the podium.

The team's sister car, the No. 85 BMW M4 GT3 with Pascal Theis, Florian Volk, Y. Hignet and Jason Birnie charged into second place early, but a fuel pump problem and a crash after another mechanical failure during the night lead to a DNF during the night hours of the race.

The 2021 edition of the Nürburgring 24 Hours marked the fourth time Fischer Motorsport participated in the event, that is widely regarded as the most challenging endurance race in the world.

Since driver’s experience is paramount even more so at the start of the race, the team decided to go with Manuel Mayer as the starting driver.

The 32-year-old veteran, who finished the 2020 iRacing Nürburgring Endurance Championship (NEC) 911 CUP class championship in third place, qualified the No. 84 EAGLE Race Simulators BMW M4 GT3 P23 on the grid.

“I didn’t get a clean lap in and had a few too many minor mistakes where I hit the curbs.”, Mayer said after posting a fastest lap of 8:12.838 in Qualifying.

The start of the race saw Mayer keep it steady and safe, losing one position and dropping to 24th. Before leaving the Grand Prix circuit and entering the Nordschleife, Mayer dropped another place to 25th, but focused on the long race ahead.

On lap three, Mayer had to avoid an accident at the entrance of the Nordschleife when another GT3 car ahead spun and was parked on the middle of the track. Thanks to quick reflexes Mayer was able to keep the car clean and out of trouble.

However, as the race progressed the team struggled with the car occasionally bottoming out in some sections of the track like Hohenrain, Kallenhard and Pflanzgarten, slightly damaging the front nose of the car.

“We’ve been seeing this in practice but thought we had it fixed. We were following the spring rate regulations from iRacing, but in the race we saw this happen nonetheless.”, team setup engineer Kyle Birnie said.

For the first six hours, it was Manuel Mayer and Tobias Abel, who completed last year’s NEC season driving an Audi RS 3 LMS for Mayer Simspeed Performance, alternating double stints and by the time the sun had set over the track, the No. 84 BMW team was running in fourth position.

The team had a bit of a scare with 18 hours to go, when Benjamin Fischer took over from Mayer during a driver swap and spun on his out-lap, in the NGK chicane.

“I messed up the entry of the chicane, tried to correct it and just lost control there. Fortunately, we didn’t hit anything and got no damage. That was all on me.”, Fischer said later.

While the 37-year old Leipzig, Germany completed the remainder of his first double stint without further issues, Fischer wasn’t the only one struggling with the darkness of the night at first.

Kyle Birnie spun at Galgenkopf on his second lap, touching the barriers in the process but avoiding any significant damage.

In a nice recovery job, the team bounced back and put together a solid drive through the night the rest of the way. The team’s sister car, the No. 85 BMW did not make it through the night. First fuel pump problems resulted in a five-minute pit stop delay, throwing the team way back. And later on Hignet crashed at Kesselchen after a mechanical failure on the car, forcing the team to retire from the race.

For the No. 84 BMW team things continued to look very promising. By the time the sun came up over the Eifel mountains on Sunday morning the team was now scored in second position with less than nine hours remaining in the race.

Kyle Birnie set the fastest lap time of the team in this race on lap 117 with a blistering lap of 8:11.984, trying to reduce the gap to the overall race leaders. By the time the San Jose, California native approached pit road to complete his final stint in the race, the gap to the lead was just over four minutes.

It was now Tobias Abel and Manuel Mayer’s turn to finish out the race for the remaining six hours of the race.

Track conditions were changing as the sun kept warming up the track more and more, but Abel kept a cool head, logging away lap after lap.

On lap 140, Abel found himself in a scary situation. Approaching the track section of Wehrseifen, the 18-year-old Frankfurt, Germany native made contact with the No. 3 BMW of Simon Talas who had previously gone into the grass and rejoined the track directly in front of the Fischer Motorsport machine.

“I saw that he was in the grass, scrapping at the guard rail at low speed. I thought it was safe to pass with slightly reduced speed there, but for some reason he suddenly steered back into the middle of the racetrack and I had nowhere to go.”, Abel described the incident.

“I thought we were done. But the boys in the pits did a phenomenal job repairing the damage. All the credit goes to them.”

Two laps before the end of the race, the team had to bring Abel in for a final pit stop, to take on a splash of fuel to finish the race. But it made no difference as the third position car was behind by almost a full lap and thus, after 24 hours, ten minutes and 26 seconds, Abel crossed the finish line to bring home the team’s second-place finish.

For Fischer Motorsport, it is the second year in a row to take second place in the iRacing Nürburgring 24 Hours.

“I’m so proud of the guys. Everybody did a great job. This race demands everything of you, physically and especially mentally. Finishing is an achievement. But to finish second place two years in a row? That is really special. What an incredible run.”, team manager Benjamin Fischer said.

“Of course you kind of wish you’d be at the top step of the podium there. But Congratulations to the guys at Revolution SimRacing. They have done a great job all race long and really deserved this one.”

In total, the No. 84 BMW team completed 170 laps, marking for a team record distance of 4,314 kilometers (2,588 miles) in the event. En route to its second-place finish the team completed 28 pit stops, used 13 sets of tires and a total of 3,231 liters of racing fuel.

Out of 55 cars that started the race on Saturday, 27 finished the car, marking for a 49% DNF rate in one of the most challenging endurance races of the year.

Official Race Results - 2021 iRacing Nürburgring 24 Hours