Disaster for BMW on opening lap

Hans Stuck's M3 took sixth place in the opening corners of the race but his car ground to a halt with no drive on the approach to the NGK chicane. Fortunately, he was towed back to the pits, where the problem was identified as burst oil pipes to the gearbox, which had been frozen by dry ice that the Schnitzer team used to stop the gearbox overheating on the very slow warm-up lap.

Stuck lost four laps and has since made a second stop for more work to be carried out. He has effectively lost about 52 minutes on the leaders.

The second car, driven by Jorg Muller, was in the depths of the Nordschleife when he hit similar trouble. His car has been towed back to the pits via public roads, but he should be allowed to restart the event.

Uwe Alzen led the race in the opening hour in his Porsche 996 Turbo, but made an earlier than expected first pitstop. He was being chased by the Dodge Viper of Peter Zakowski, which in turn had the Opel Astra of Marcel Tiemann in tow.

The first Audi of Kris Nissen was up to fourth by this stage, passing the second Opel of Volker Strycek late in the opening hour. The second Audi, driven by three-times Le Mans winner Frank Biela, made an unscheduled pitstop for a precautionary check, but has since returned to the race in 12th place.


U Alzen/J Alzen/Klasen/Bartels Porsche 996 Turbo, 7 laps
Zakowski/Lamy/Lechner Dodge Viper
Reuter/Scheider/Tiemann/Strycek Opel Astra V8 Coupe
Nissen/Abt/Wendlinger/Werner Abt Audi TT-R
Dumbreck/Bleekemolen/Menzel/Strycek Opel Astra V8 Coupe
Luhr/Collard/Bernhard Porsche 996 Turbo