Endurance racer Jean-Francois Brunot experienced a bittersweet outing in the 50th anniversary staging of the world-renowned ADAC TotalEnergies 24h Nurburgring race at the weekend – but was
still delighted to reach the chequered flag in one of global motorsport’s greatest challenges.

Featuring a grid of an incredible 138 cars for the twice-round-the-clock encounter at the 25-kilometre German venue, Brunot formed part of the line-up in the No.252 KKrämer Racing entered
Porsche 718 Cayman GT4. Contesting the Cup 3 class, the squad’s challenge was jeopardised on the very first lap. Having made a strong start, moving up from 11th in class to fifth, Brunot’s hopes were hit – literally – when a rival slammed into the rear of his car at Wehrseifen, resulting in a cut tyre.

Brunot had to crawl back to the pits, a distance of some 10 kilometres, which put the team in last position when the repaired Porsche returned to the track. With the car carrying damage for the
remaining 23 hours of competition, and more repairs needed later in the race, the squad stayed focused and committed to take the finish 27 laps down on the class winner.

“The Nurburgring 24 Hour is truly one of the most amazing motorsports events on the planet, and this 50th anniversary edition did not disappoint”, said Brunot, “The energy was incredible, the crowd in the hundreds of thousands was amped-up and so were the drivers – unfortunately maybe too much so! There were hundreds of contacts, dozens and dozens of crashes, but minimal penalties.

“It was great to finish such an intense race, in spite of everything, and on another note I’d like to say a big congratulations to the team and the sister No.127 car for winning the 992 Porsche Cup class with brilliant drives by Moritz Kramz, Christopher Brück, Alexej Veremenko and, the boss himself, Karsten Krämer.”

This post was written by JM