When rain stops play — the Eifel mountains vs. TCR Germany

Touring car racing and weather are an awkward combination. The short, sharp, sprint race nature of a touring car race means variable weather within a race is rarely a thing; usually what happens is you either start in the wet, the dry, or in intermediate conditions, and work out what best to do with that strategy in terms of tyres and set-ups.

During the latest round of the TCR Germany Touring Car Championship at the Nürburgring, a rain storm hit the circuit just after the race had begun, and caused total chaos — not only in the race, but in the officials’ office post-race, as it took the best part of two hours to decipher the result of the race.

It was the second race of the weekend. The first had taken place a day earlier on Saturday, in much different conditions. It had been a perfect weekend so far for guest driver Thierry Neuville; the World Rally Championship star was making a one-off appearance with the support of Hyundai Deutschland. The South Korean marque had made sure he was prepped and ready to put in a good performance, and with some pre-race testing, and coaching on hand from two-time world touring car champion Gabriele Tarquini, Neuville romped to pole position and an easy Race 1 victory in the i30 N TCR.

Sunday was fun day however, and the weather had no intention of allowing a repeat of Saturday’s relative procession — which in itself is rare in the German TCR championship, which often delivers plenty of frenetic, contact-heavy racing.

The reversed grid system applies for Race 2, so Neuville had his work cut out for him anyway, starting in tenth place, while Pascal Eberle, the Swiss driver who was making a one-off return, started from pole position in his Cupra TCR.

Eberle totally fluffed the start, and Dominik Fugel blasted through into the lead in his Fugel Sport Honda Civic TCR from third on the grid, leading ahead of the Team Oettinger Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR of Mitchell Cheah, and the Hyundai i30 N TCR of last year’s champion Harald Proczyk.

That rain was going to be a factor was clear by the end of the first lap, with drops of rain visible on the camera lens at the final corner.

Proczyk made his way past Cheah’s Volkswagen on lap two into second place, with Max Hesse in the Engstler Motorsport Volkswagen also passing Cheah at the final corner — then Proczyk stole the lead from Fugel with a decisive move into Turn 1 (Haug-Haken) at the start of lap three, while Eberle had recovered from his mess of a start and was now up to fourth, having dropped all the way to eighth.

The rain was falling even heavier now, and Fugel was struggling to hold on to his Honda, sliding down the order on lap four, with Eberle seemingly excelling in the conditions, moving up to second place, with Hesse up to third.

René Kircher, in the Racing One Audi RS 3 LMS, was the first driver to lose control of his car in the conditions, sliding off at the Coca Cola-Kurve at the end of the lap.

Onto lap five, and other cars were also struggling to hold on, and a number of drivers decided to make the daring decision to pit at the end of lap five, including race leader Proczyk, as well as early race leader Fugel.

Changing tyres in a touring car race is not a standard practice. There are no three to six second Formula 1 or DTM-style pit stops for TCR cars, as the tyres are fitted to very much traditional-style racing wheels with multiple wheel nuts.

Proczyk’s HP Racing International team weren’t particularly quick with his stop either, which allowed the Hondas of both Dominik Fugel and Bradley Burns to get ahead of him.

Everyone else who stayed out was playing a dangerous gamble. If the conditions would be so bad that a safety car was called, they’d be able to lock themselves into their positions and trundle around behind it — or better yet, if the race was red-flagged, teams can then changes the tyres on the grid, and then they’d gain massively on those who’d opted to pit their cars during the race.

The slick-shod runners continued around on lap six, with Hesse now passing Eberle for the lead, which would later prove critical.

On lap seven, the race was still green, and then as the field came to the final part of the circuit, they found the track was now being pounded by rain.

No car with slick tyres had any chance to stay on track at the Warsteiner-Kurve, with Hesse, Eberle, the Audi of Antti Buri, the Honda of Mike Halder and the Cupra of Julien Apothéloz, as well as Neuville’s Hyundai all running wide but through the very gratuitously large gravel trap, and all rejoined, with Eberle now taking the lead from Hesse.

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Eberle, Hesse and Neuville all still stayed out, but Buri, Halder and Apothéloz had had enough and dived in for wet tyres.

Now onto lap eight, and the safety car is finally called, and Hesse, Eberle and Neuville call it time and also dive into the pits for a set of wet Yokohama tyres.

The only car that decided to stay out was Jan Seyffert, the Lubner Motorsport driver in a Lada Vesta TCR was chancing it, perhaps hoping for that red flag and hoping to just keep his car on track despite the now torrential conditions.

Ladas after all are Russian, the land of rain, so surely the car can handle it?

Nope. On lap nine, Seyffert’s car just aquaplanes straight off the track into the barriers — his slick tyres producing absolutely no grip — he may as well have not had a steering wheel.

The race was now red-flagged, and all the cars returned to the grid in wait for an eventual restart.

However, no restart was forthcoming, with the TCR Germany championship race set to run way past its allotted time — and so a result was to be declared…at some point — based on the rule book.

Determining who has won a race like this?

It’s not easy. Red flags often lead to a countback formula, when the race result is declared based on where the cars were at the end of the previous lap, but with cars all over the place — that’s both the track and in the pit lane, this proved to be more of a challenge than usual.

Dominik Fugel was technically leading the race, having been one of the first drivers to stop for wet tyres, and with the Honda driver having got the jump on Proczyk’s Hyundai in the pit lane —Fugel was furious to have not been classed the winner, and in a way that makes sense. He’d made the right call, his team had done a great job in the pits — but it was always clear Fugel wasn’t going to be classed the winner if the race didn’t resume due to countback rules, as the 22-year-old hadn’t led the race since the end of lap two.

The countback was determined to define the result as of the end of lap six, almost three laps earlier, but with just six laps complete, and at that point only ten minutes of the 23 minute race length, the 75% rule would also apply, which meant only half-points would be awarded to the finishers.

The revised classification confirmed that Max Hesse would be the winner, picking up his second career victory in two consecutive race weekends, and closing up the gap, albeit slightly, to current championship leader Antti Buri, and is now 22 points behind with two race meetings left.

The race drove mixed reaction. Many drivers enjoyed the challenge, though some felt they were unfairly treated by the way the result was deciphered.

“Sadly the race was stolen by the stewards after the race,” said Fugel on his Instagram account.

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“The rain came after three laps and we decided early to change to rain tyres. This was the right decision and I was in the lead when everyone was in the pits,” said Fugel.

“Two hours after the race, the stewards decided to take the results to before the safety car came out. And that means I was in the pits by then, finishing tenth instead. I feel really sorry for the team, they had done a perfect job and a perfect strategy.”

The pit stops were what really added the complication to determining what to do, as on any lap, a number of cars were pitting and some would have passed, and some wouldn’t have passed, the timing beam, making it impossible to work out who was really where.

Deciding to call the race with no result was also an option, but also a decision many drivers would’ve been unhappy with.

Max Hesse had been ahead of Antti Buri’s Audi at every point of the race, so the German was certain to gain ground in the standings to the Finnish driver — and the rules clearly state that if more than two laps were completed, a result would be declared — even with half-points — and in Hesse’s case, half-points would be better than none.

Obviously, if the race had restarted, that would have resolved the issue — but with the conditions being what they are, and with the ADAC weekends having a set timetable of races to run, that was not possible.

The stewards’ job at the Nürburgring last week isn’t one to envy — the end result at least is a closed up championship, and an fascinating demonstration of how not to drive around the famous German circuit on slick tyres in a front-wheel drive touring car.

You can watch the whole race again here: