Private team Scherer Sport PHX celebrates 24h Nürburgring victory: No word from Audi

Special circumstances sometimes call for special winners. With Scherer Sport PHX, a private team actually won the 52nd edition of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, the shortest race in the history of the Eifel classic with just 50 laps. While the Scherer team, which emerged from Phoenix Racing, always benefited from factory support from Audi Sport in recent years, the team from Meuspath was on its own this year, at least in terms of costs.

As is well known, Audi Sport had to stop providing financial support to customer teams at the beginning of this year following a board decision in June 2023. Everything else is to be subordinated to the Formula 1 entry in 2026. With Nico Hülkenberg, at least one future employee of the Ingolstadt-based company was seen at the 24-hour race, but the F1 driver flew in for private pleasure. Board members or top managers from Audi stayed away from the Eifel this time, at least in an official capacity. The person primarily responsible for Audi’s customer sport earthquake, ex-CEO Markus Duesmann, has left the company anyway.

An Audi wins the 24-hour race – manufacturer remains silent

It was striking that Audi Sport did not mention its seventh overall victory since 2012 in a single line on its social media or in a press release, or was allowed to mention it on a company announcement. Not even a press photo from the race could be found on the Audi media page. In the past, however, the prestigious Nürburgring successes by the Phoenix and Scherer teams (2012, 2014, 2019, 2022), WRT (2015) and Land-Motorsport (2017) were always celebrated extensively within the company and with a wide reach in public.

“The hearts of Audi employees and Audi fans all over the world are bleeding. They want to continue to see us in other racing series,” said Audi’s deputy works council chairwoman Karola Frank in March of this year. The former Audi Sport Managing Director Dr. Sebastian Grams later explained to Motorsport-Magazin.com “I find it extremely unfortunate that they did not want to continue customer sport in parallel, as other manufacturers also do very successfully.”

Nürburgring duel ‘David versus Goliath’

The Scherer Sport PHX team described its performance in the Eifel triumph as ‘David against Goliath’. Team owner Christian Scherer, owner of twelve car dealerships and thus a very important partner of Audi, said after crossing the finish line: “A dream has come true. It would feel better if we had achieved it over the entire distance. But at the end of the day I am very proud because we scored points as a private team against the factory-supported teams.”

However, Scherer’s victory in the prematurely ended 24-hour race was not entirely without support: Audi Sport has promised its customer teams continued technical support, and several of the manufacturer’s employees could be seen in the paddock wearing their red jackets, including Customer Sport Manager Chris Reinke.

For the use of the still factory driver Frank Stippler, Scherer says he did not have to pay Ricardo Feller, Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock any money. Feller and Stippler have team-specific contracts anyway. Scherer was able to obtain a release for ex-Audi drivers Mies and Vervisch from their new employer Ford, but presumably had to pay for it out of his own pocket.

Frank Stippler cries after third Nürburgring overall victory

It was easy to see in Frank Stippler’s eyes how emotional the decisions regarding Audi Sport, which have also been criticized within the company, really are. Tears ran down the cheeks of the 49-year-old Nordschleife veteran after his third overall victory (2012, 2019, 2024). “That was probably the last chance to win a 24-hour race with an Audi because they are withdrawing from GT racing and I’m getting older,” said ‘Stippi’, whose factory contract expires at the end of 2024. “To achieve that in the last year with Audi after 21 years and 16 years with Phoenix couldn’t be better.”

The personal career plans of Stippler, who joined Audi as a test driver in 2004 and made his DTM debut in 2005, are not known. It remains a possibility that his Scherer team will compete again next year with an Audi R8 line-up in order to defend its title and achieve a record eighth overall victory.

Scherer does not rule out Nürburgring return with Audi

Despite the lack of support from Audi, team boss Christian Scherer did not want to rule out a further engagement with the Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II. “We will definitely remain active here at the Ring, a decision as to which constellation has not yet been made,” Scherer stressed about Start of the weekend in conversation with Motorsport-Magazin.com. “We are in talks with various manufacturers.”