14.6.2004
24h-race at the Nürburgring: Bad luck for Opel

At the 32nd 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, last year's winners Manuel Reuter, Timo Scheider, Volker Strycek and Marcel Tiemann ranked tenth after a spirited recovery with their Opel Astra V8 Coupé.

The race at the legendary "Nordschleife" was marked by changing weather conditions. Experts judged the 24-hour race as one of the toughest ever. Numerous cars spun off the rain-soaked track and some of them spent a lot of time in the pits for necessary repairs.

The Opel Astra V8 Coupé with starting number 5 driven by Peter Dumbreck, Marcel Fässler, Christian Menzel and Opel motorsport director Volker Strycek, was an early retirement from the race following an accident late on Saturday evening.

The car with starting number 1 also had to go into the pits for a longer repair break on Saturday evening. This loss of time made the team drop back to 70th place, but in the remaining hours, the drivers steadily made their way up the order again and ranked tenth in the end.