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Just back from an incredible trip to Germany, for the Nurburgring 24-Hour race. The event was memorable for many reasons, one big one being a victory for Porsche with a Manthey Racing GT3, and the other was the sheer speed of the 911R Hybrid.

Though the Hybrid started way down the field thanks to its air restrictor handicap, the car was soon climbing the order. The first few laps were all about the big Mercedes and Audis up front but as the laps counted up, the Hybrid just kept coming and coming. Eventually, the car took the lead, but confused reporting at the racetrack meant not that many people knew about it.

Soon there was a problem with diff flanges, and the car had to come in the pits, losing six laps on one stop then 40 minutes on another. A race lap of the Nurburgring at this level is about 9 minutes. Eventually, it got going again and was mindblowingly fast. You could easily see the speed the car had over others out of the very tight turn two, and the speed it was carrying on to the start-finish straight. Awesome!

When the chequered flag fell, the Hybrid was in 28th position, but it had made it to the finish and kicked some ass along the way. All of us had experienced a thrilling 24-Hour race, where racing cars and not sports prototypes were the order of the day. This event was right up my street. It’s on my list for next year: guaranteed.

I spent the weekend with Falken Tyres Europe and their 911 GT3 R (above), driven by Wolf Henzler, Martin Ragginger, Peter Dumbreck and Sebastian Asch. Was in the top 5 lap times for the weekend but talk about a roller coaster! Working on the feature for Total 911 magazine.