NOMAD put two cars into this years Nürburgring 24 hour race on iRacing, and the two could not have had more different fortunes. First, let's get the bad news out of the way: Team Blue got off to a decent start in split 3 with Tony Baird managing to make up a few spots in what was clearly going to be a competitive race, but towards the end of that first stint suffered what was deemed race ending damage. Not what any of us wanted, but it happens – none of the drivers were in the mood for a 23 hour recovery drive from around 40 minutes back.
Now, the better write-up comes courtesy of Team Black:
Starting from 11th the race started surprisingly calmly with no major incidents for the first hour and a half. This allowed Ryan Walker to push up to 5th. On the last lap of Ryan's double stint a backmarker swerved unexpectedly, causing Ryan to hit the grass and spin into the wall at a high speed. Driving it back to the pits showed that luckily no major repairs were needed. We decided to take the 2 minutes of optional repairs.
With that damage done we had fallen 11 places to 16th. William Bush went out to try and recover what he could for the next 2 fuel stints. 13 laps and 2 tanks of fuel later William pitted 6th. Ryan jumped back into the car for another 2 fuel stints. During this driver stint the sun fell, plunging the green hell into darkness. Ryan and Will both adapted to the light change amazingly and put the car into 4th before handing over to a new driver, Owen Middleton, for the next 2 hours.
With the circuit now in pitch black darkness it was all about keeping pace consistent and not crashing. However with 2 laps left of his stint Owen missed his braking point at the Karussell and hit the outside wall. Minor steering damage brought him in 1 lap early. Ryan served the 1 min 40 sec of repairs before heading out for his last time in the car, now in 4th overall. Another great night drive from Ryan brought the car to the pits in 1st place.
With 12 hours to go, and everyone else asleep, Owen started his lonely 2 stints in the car. Now the early hours of the morning Owen had completed his 2 fuel stints and gained over 2 mins to 2nd place. however, as it came time to pass over to Kevin Bolland, he was nowhere be seen. With no one awake Owen was forced to take on another double stint. With the sun now coming up, finally Robbie Carenduff came to his aid 2 laps to go on his fourth consecutive stint.
Robbie took over the car now 5min 39 sec ahead of P2 and put in 2 solid fuel stints. Still no major incidents since our lap 14 crash. Kevin finally returned to take over from Robbie and began his first time in the car. However with 5:30 hours left to go Owen noticed P2 had their very quick driver in the car and were gaining about 15 sec a lap. With the lead rapidly dropping they decided to bring Robbie in early and hand over to Owen again for the last 3:30 hours. Having being up from the start, Owen began his 5th 6th and 7th hour in the car. Some decent laps stopped the advance of P2 and Owen brought the car home in a well deserved 1st place, winners of split #8 in the 2019 24hrs of Nürburgring. Congratulations to Team Black!