As a boy he dreamed of driving a car race one day. As a boy he also jumped from trees. If he could climb the trees, he could jump down. In the end, a few centimeters became a jump from a height of more than 39.000 meters. Felix Baumgartner, the man who jumped out of the stratosphere. A crazy stunt. And now he is fulfilling another boy’s dream: he’s driving a car race. Not just any. He drives “THE car race” right away. The 24 hours at the Nürburgring.
felix24hours
24-hour race at the Nürburgring in the Audi R8 LMS ultra
Anyone who has jumped with a parachute more than 2.600 times, who jumps out of a kind of space capsule during a crazy stunt, has little left to lose. You might think. But the upcoming 24-hour race at the Nürburgring will be unusually serious for the stratospheric jumper. Moving a racing car through the night, over the most dangerous race track in the world, in the middle of 174 other racing cars - that's not something you just do. Not even as an extreme athlete.
The preparation
When Felix Baumgartner gets into the Audi R21 LMS ultra GT8 on June 3st, he has already had several VLN races behind him. And he did not go into these races without the necessary training. The Audi R8 will go to the start under the name “Audi race experience” and the sporting director of this group, the Austrian Sepp Haider, prepared Felix Baumgartner for this day long before the race. Dozens of laps on the Nordschleife were covered, eSome of them ended sooner than others - but you don't want to talk about that anymore at this point.
It is an ambitious program that Felix Baumgartner has charged. One does not drive a racer overnight and an Audi R8 LMS ultra GT3 with 570 PS does not drive at the limit after only a few hours of practice. At the Nürburgring, the GT3 vehicles are among the fastest racing cars. Overtaking becomes a huge challenge in a field where 4 / 5 of all participants will be slow.
The race - the 24h in the Eifel
Felix Baumgartner has improved in the lap times in the two VLN races he started at the beginning of the season. Nevertheless, there will be a gap between him and the pros on the other vehicles. Since he is unlikely to sit in the car for more than 2 hours at a time, Audi puts three experienced professionals at his side: with Frank Biela, Marco Werner and Pierre Kaffer, real GT pros and Le Mans winners sit on Felix's vehicle.
Chances are that after the stratosphere stunt, the PR stunt in the Green Hell will succeed. I keep my fingers crossed for Felix Baumgartner, that he gets over the time without any nuclear waste and in the end he sees the fascination of motorsport and green hell not only in PR success and in Euro!
With this video clip, the fans of Felix Baumgartner can tune into the race:
From June 19.6.2014th, XNUMX things will get busy – then we will be fascinated by the Nordschleife and the event all around felix24hours never let go. Audi and Felix Baumgartner are going into the race using multimedia and anyone who is interested can join in the excitement live and in color on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and of course on the felix24hours website. Here are the links at a glance:
- FELIX24HOURS website
- Felix Baumgartner on Facebook
- FELIX24HOURS on Twitter
- FELIX24HOURS on Instagram
[=” ” ]This article was sponsored by Audi Germany. The cover photo was provided by Audi Germany. The photo of the R8 on the Nordschleife and the photo of Felix Baumgartner with a helmet are mine.