Nissan survives longest night at the Nurburgring race

(MENAFN- Arab News) Two Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 race cars have finished the 2014 Nurburgring 24 Hours. The grueling race held on the 25-km Nordschleife saw over 160 cars and 600 drivers compete for glory in one of the world's toughest racing events.

The star of the show for Nissan was 2013 GT Academy Germany graduate Florian Strauss. After Lucas Ordonez was struck down with flu the No.80 GT-R was left a man down and despite the fact that Florian has only been racing for nine months he had to take his full share of driving duty eight hours of navigating the Nordschleife's 172 corners many of which are blind.

"I wasn't too nervous as I have been out on this track at a recent VLN race. We had a bit of bad luck in the beginning so I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to catch up again. I caught Chiyo-san (in the No. 30 Nissan) at one point and we had a good battle together as we went through traffic so that was very exciting. I made sure I kept calm and got into a good rhythm to do the best I could for the team" Strauss added.

The bad luck Strauss mentioned was lap one contact for the No.80 GT-R which forced Alex Buncombe to pit for repairs instantly losing a lap on the competition.

That car was then in fight back mode for the remainder of the race. Buncombe was able to lap on the pace of the leaders but despite his best efforts and those of Nick Heidfeld and Strauss the mountain was too high to climb.

"Overall I enjoyed the race and it is good to get my first Nurburgring 24 Hours finish Heidfeld said. "Realistically we had the pace for a top 10 finish."