Hyundai will deliver its largest group but to the Nürburgring Nordschleife to contest this yr’s Nürburgring 24 Hours (Could 30-June 2). Three Hyundai Elantra N TCR vehicles stand able to chase a fourth consecutive class win for the group.
The crews for the vehicles hail from three totally different continents and embody the defending class winners, in addition to champion Hyundai Motorsport buyer drivers from a number of the best TCR sequence.
The three vehicles – set to hold the #830, #831 and #832 in the course of the endurance racing weekend – will likely be led by Mikel Azcona, Marc Basseng and Manuel Lauck aboard the #830 automobile. These three drivers mixed to win the TCR class in 2022 and 2023, whereas Basseng and Lauck additionally achieved victory on the 2021 Nürburgring 24 Hours within the Elantra N TCR’s debut on the legendary endurance race.
The Hyundai-Motor-America-supported Bryan Herta Autosport group loved an excellent Nürburgring 24 Hours debut efficiency in 2023, finishing the third-consecutive Hyundai Motorsport Class 1-2 end. The BHA group returns to the Nordschleife in 2024 with a distinct driver lineup: Mason Filippi and his team-mate, 2023 IMSA Michelin Pilot Problem sequence champion, Harry Gottsacker, will make their second begins within the TCR class. They are going to be joined by Canadian Mark Wilkins making his 24 Hours debut. 19-year-old Bryson Morris accomplished the group for the Qualifiers weekend in his first Nordschleife begin with a TCR automobile, though the ultimate driver for the 24 Hours weekend is but to be confirmed.
All new for 2024 is the #832 entry, set to be pushed by 4 stars of the TCR China sequence: Hongwei Cao, Rainey He, Andy Yan and Zhang Zhen Dong. Cao emerged with the 2023 nationwide sequence title in his first yr driving the Elantra N TCR after a tense season finale on the streets of Macau in November. Cao will share the automobile for the Nürburgring 24 Hours together with his 2023 Hyundai N squad team-mates, He and Yan. The group will likely be accomplished by Dong, who competed in TCR China final yr with the Z Velocity group, ending eighth within the extremely aggressive sequence with a pair of podium appearances. His efforts helped the Elantra N TCR clinch the Automobile TCR Mannequin of the 12 months honours within the nationwide sequence.
The group and drivers all competed final weekend on the N24 Qualifiers. They completed the weekend with an ideal 1-2-3 in school in Sunday’s four-hour race of the weekend as Azcona, Basseng and Lauck took victory infront of the North American and Chinese language groups. On Saturday the #830 group recovered from a puncture to win the category. Equally, Filippi suffered a puncture early within the race aboard #831 however introduced the automobile again to the pits with no additional harm. The automobile would full the rostrum forward of the Chinese language-crewed automobile in fourth.
The three-car TCR group for the Nürburgring 24 Hours additional advances the shut connection between Hyundai N, the Nürburgring and the race. Fittingly, Hyundai’s N efficiency division identify itself is derived from the legendary German circuit, in addition to Namyang, South Korea – residence of Hyundai’s international R&D centre. Hyundai maintains a technical centre within reach of the circuit, which it makes use of to conduct in depth testing of each new street automobile mannequin as a part of their on-going improvement.
Hyundai Motorsport has developed an equally robust and profitable hyperlink with the Nürburgring 24 Hours. All three TCR designs constructed by the Buyer Racing division have scored class podiums within the Nürburgring 24 Hours, with Elantra N TCR race vehicles rising victorious the final three years.
The trio of Elantra N TCR groups for the 2024 race goals so as to add to this unimaginable document. Nevertheless, the Nürburgring 24 Hours is broadly recognised as one of the crucial excessive challenges in motorsport. A mix of the unforgiving 25km circuit, famously various climate circumstances, an enormous vary of efficiency throughout the 140+ vehicles on observe, and the problem of driving via the evening stays unparalleled in trendy racing.
The official line-up of groups for the race will likely be accomplished by the Hyundai Driving Expertise i30 Fastback N within the VT2 Entrance-Wheel-Drive class. In 2023, the group dominated the category, successful by a formidable 9 laps, although their benefit was as a lot as double that margin earlier than a late technical drawback. The group for 2024 will embody two of the winners from final yr in skilled drivers Marcus Willhardt and Michael Bohrer. They are going to be joined by journalist-racer Jens Dralle who returns for a second yr with the group on the Nürburgring 24 Hours after driving a second automobile in 2023. The group will likely be accomplished by Korean Junior driver Gyumin Kim, who has already confirmed his expertise because the Hyundai N Competition winner in his residence nation final yr earlier than serving to the group to class podium finishes within the first two NLS races of the season earlier in April.
Hyundai Motor Firm Vice President and Head of Hyundai N Model & Motorsport Sub-division Until Wartenberg stated: “Our participation within the Nürburgring 24 Hours has at all times been a key date in our yr. Because the starting of Hyundai N our high-performance street vehicles have had an in depth reference to the Nürburgring, via our technical centre and Hyundai N itself. The success we have now loved within the TCR class on the race has solely made the occasion extra necessary as, with Hyundai Motorsport, we have now expanded our involvement within the race to a few vehicles, representing a number of the most necessary markets for Hyundai Motor Firm and a number of the most profitable race groups with the Elantra N TCR. We all know that each one three groups have the power to attain an awesome end result, however the Nürburgring 24 Hours stays an awesome problem.”
Hyundai Motorsport President & Group Principal Cyril Abiteboul stated: “Hyundai Motorsport is proud to be a part of the long-running shut connection between Hyundai N and the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Because the starting of our TCR challenge, the annual journey to the Nürburgring 24 Hours has been one of the crucial necessary dates on our racing calendar – and one of the crucial profitable. Three successive class wins within the TCR class have clearly demonstrated the efficiency and reliability of the Elantra N TCR in one of the crucial difficult races in trendy motorsport. Being the defending class winners brings with it further stress, however I’m positive with our three TCR crews we’ll once more be the group to beat on observe.”
Hyundai Motorsport Circuit Racing Challenge Supervisor Julien Moncet stated: “The Hyundai Elantra N TCR and our buyer groups and drivers have an excellent document in each TCR dash racing sequence and on the Nürburgring 24 Hours. This yr’s driver line-up for the three Elantra N TCR vehicles brings this collectively. Mikel Azcona, Marc Basseng and Manuel Lauck have received the TCR class for the final two years, in order that they have a transparent pedigree in endurance racing. They are going to be joined by drivers from our main buyer groups in North America and in China, the place they’ve already loved nice success. Final yr, the 4 Bryan Herta Autosport drivers put in an awesome efficiency to complete second in school of their debut on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. I’m assured each the North American group and the TCR China drivers can obtain one other robust end result this yr.”