With almost 130 racing cars and hundreds of marshals, safety must of course be the top priority on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. For various reasons, not all drivers took this aspect into account at the 52nd edition of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. In the two qualifying sessions on Thursday, there were almost 20 penalties because drivers were driving too fast during the numerous Code 60 phases.
Steve Alvarez Brown was the most over the top in night qualifying: The Brit from the BILSTEIN by BLACK FALCON team (#150) was caught speeding in his BMW M4 GT4 at 145.5 km/h, when the speed limit was actually only 60 km/h. The stewards punished this serious violation with an immediate disqualification and the withdrawal of the Nordschleife license, known as the ‘DPN’. For Brown, this year’s 24-hour race at the Nürburgring is therefore over before the first lap.
In their decision, the stewards wrote of an “excessive violation of the speed limit” in view of the speeding by 65 km/h. The flag signals were clearly displayed at the point in question and therefore there was no reason to deviate from the penalty. The sports commissioners also saw no possibility for the team or driver to lodge a protest against the decision in accordance with the regulations.
Steve Brown’s permit withdrawal: This is what Bilstein says
Motorsport-Magazin.com asked Bilstein project manager Christoph Henkel, President of the Performance and Aftermarket business, for a statement.
Henkel: “Of course, such a violation of the rules should not happen, which is why we accepted the punishment together. Steve is on the ground and is totally destroyed. So far there have been no problems at all with the emergency team and we have been working together for 18 months. He takes motorsport very seriously and has not done anything wrong so far. It was the first time he was out at night and it was his first lap. His mistake was an unfortunate combination of many things that proved to be his undoing. It was probably a blackout and it went extremely badly.”
In addition, MSM Contacted bystanders and learned that the Code 60 zone was actually difficult to see. Henkel continued: “Steve takes the issue very seriously and after the stewards’ decision he apologized to the team and us and cried bitterly. For him, a dream has not come true. Steve has nevertheless decided to watch the race here on site and support the team.”
Steve Brown started in the ‘YouTuber’ BMW
To make matters worse, Brown’s Black Falcon team also has to serve a 90-second stop-and-go penalty in the pit lane after the first lap of the race after the start on Saturday at 4 p.m. Brown’s teammates are the well-known YouTubers Misha Charoudin and Jimmy Broadbent, as well as the former 24-hour overall winner Manuel Metzger.
Brown, better known online under the name ‘Super GT’, is himself a YouTuber: his channel, which is mainly about sin racing and real racing experiences, has an impressive 921,000 subscribers. Brown has 118,000 followers on Instagram.
Brown says he drove in karting for more than 20 years before switching to motor racing in 2022. Brown, Broadbent and Charoudin switched from a G20 BMW 330i to a more powerful BMW M4 GT4 for the 2024 season on the Nordschleife. In the 24h Qualifiers, the quartet led by coach/driver Metzger achieved second place in the SP8T class, adding a fourth place after a tire puncture.