DGFX Round 2 – Nurburgring

Nicknamed "The Green Hell", Nürburgring Nordschleife is probably the toughest track in the world with over 1,000 ft of elevation change and over 170 turns in its entire configuration; it’s a track drivers dream about, and have nightmares about! DGFX Round 2 used the Gesamtstrecke configuration, which include the F1 portion of the track. The event had 58 cars (HPDs, Mercedes AMGs, Audi R8s, BMW Z4s, and Porsche GT3s) attacking 16 miles per lap of "Green Hell".

GT Red (#57)

Clark Archer and Erich Smith drove our Mercedes AMG GT3; Shane Norton was unable to drive due to medical issues, but provided race support. The car qualified P13 since they felt they didn't quite have the out-right pace to challenge the leaders, they chose a conservative strategy saving fuel, double stinting tires, and make good on-track decisions. As luck would have it, the race began to fall to their way from the start. Running a bit off the pace allowed them to make good decisions and kept them out of all the trouble at the front.

With all the trouble between the classes, the team continued to gain positions and other then a few hairy situations that materialized around them and a small amount of painting traded with the other classes, they had few difficulties for the first 5 hours and they slowing kept advancing thier position. With about 45 minutes left in the race, the team was 10 seconds out of P3 and realized that P2 had 2 minutes of post-race penalties. With the GT Red team having 1 minute of post-race penalties, they stood a good chance on finishing P2! Unfortunately, they had to pit for a splash on the white flag lap and exited the pits with a 44 second gap to P2, so they slipped to P4 position after post-race penalties and there was only 0.2 gallons of gas in the car at the finish line – a fine finish for Clark, Erich, and Shane. They currently are P8 in the Championship.

GT Blue (#13)

Andy Banfield and J.C. Arnold drove our blue Mercedes GT3. Andy qualified the car Friday night and started; J.C. drove the middle stint and then finished the last hour of the race. They said they were a "festival" of one-car wrecks as "The Crushed Tin Can", the nickname they gave their car, kept on running even though both tried to kill it sufficient times! Nurburgring was just not their cup of tea, although practice dropped about 17 seconds, but they were still 15-20 seconds slower than the fast guys.

With real life in full gear for Andy and J.C., it was just bad timing for the race neither got to practice as much as they wanted. Regardless, they finished P12 and continue to maintaining their motto “NO DNF's...EVER” and they’re still having fun.... Currently, they are tied for P16 in the Championship.

Prototype Purple (#33)

Russell Klaesson and German Afanador drove our Barney Purple, Honda Performance Development ARC-01c. It appears they qualified about P10 and finished P7. They are currently P10 in the Championship.

It seems the general sentiment was that all the guys were glad to leave “The Green Hell” behind them and all are looking forward to running Suzuka in Round 3 of the DGFX Championship.