Bryan Herta Autosport plans to enter a pair of Hyundai Veloster N cars in Germany in 2020. It’s the same car the team races in IMSA.
The 24 Hours of Nurburgring, held annually on the beyond-iconic, 15.5-mile road course in Germany since 1970, is one of the toughest, most respected events in motorsports.
Unfortunately, it has been of only passing interest to American race fans, as only a handful of drivers from the U.S. compete, and those who do typically sign on with a European privateer team.
For the 2020 race, though, we have a factory-backed U.S.-based team to cheer for: Bryan Herta Autosport, which took first and second in its debut year in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR class last season, is planning to send its four drivers to compete with Hyundai in a Veloster N, the same car the team fields in IMSA competition.
Drivers Mark Wilkins and Michael Lewis won the IMSA championship in their No. 98 Veloster, while series rookies Mason Filippi and Harry Gottsacker took second in the No. 21 team car.
Herta told Autoweek that the plan is to put all four drivers in one car for the grueling event on the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit, which means “North Loop.”
Bryan Herta may be sending his team to Germany without him, as the 24 Hours of Nurburgring is scheduled for the same weekend as son Colton will be racing in the Indianapolis 500.
But it’s not quite a done deal. It is considerably easier to gain entry into the 24 Hours of Le Mans or the Rolex 24 at Daytona than it is to have a driver approved to race in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring. Unlike Le Mans and Daytona, only GT and touring cars are allowed – no prototypes.
It’s an event that Hyundai is surprisingly familiar with – the Veloster N TCR cars are built in Germany by Hyundai Motorsport GmbH, and the company has a large performance facility located at the track itself. Hyundai entered two TCR cars in the race this year – one Veloster N and One i30, which shares 85 percent of its parts with the Veloster – but this will be the first time its America drivers are invited to compete. The two Hyundais finished second and third in their class.
But there are some hoops to jump through first. Before a driver can be approved for the 24 Hours, he or she must compete in two separate, shorter races at the track, which means two trips to Germany and back just to qualify.
But, said Thomas Schemera, Hyundai executive vice-president, there’s one concern that could derail the plan entirely: The two required races are held early in the season, and snow is a genuine concern. “They’ll race in the rain, but if it snows, the race is cancelled. And we have to get them through both races.”
Schemera also said that while the plan is to take all four drivers, there’s a chance only two may get the nod, likely Lewis and Filippi. But Herta is pushing to enter all four. “It hasn’t been finalized,” said Schemera, who joined Hyundai in 2018 from BMW, where he worked since 1987.
IMSA MIchelin Pilot Challenge TCR class winners Mark Wilkins and Michael Lewis hope to take their winning ways to Germany in 2020.
As for Herta, there’s a problem, too: While Herta has four wins in IndyCar and CART as a driver, his greatest success has come as a team owner, twice winning the Indianapolis 500 with Dan Wheldon and Alexander Rossi.
But he’s also the father of Colton Herta, who at 18 became the youngest IndyCar winner in history when he won at Circuit of the Americas last March, following that up with a win at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in the series season finale in September.
This year, organizers moved the 24 Hours of Nurburgring to later in the season – Memorial Day weekend. Colton plans to be racing in the 2020 Indianapolis 500, and father Bryan plans to be there to support him, even if it means shipping his TCR drivers off to Germany without him.
Bryan went to the 2019 race, “and I was really surprised by the scope of it. We don’t know that much about it here, but if people have an American team to root for, hopefully we can draw some attention to it.”
But first, there’s that licensing – two VLN races, classes, training – “It’s really an extensive process,” Herta said. “They don’t care if you are a rookie or a Formula 1 driver, you have to go through the entire program.”
As for his TCR teams in IMSA, the Nos. 98 and 21 will be back in 2020, plus three more Hyundai Veloster Ns in IMSA, and anywhere from two to six in the World Challenge series. The new cars, fielded by as-yet undisclosed teams, will be built in Germany the shipped to Bryan Herta Autosport, where they will be modified to fit IMSA and World Challenge’s TC America rules. Hyundais won titles not only in the U.S., but took championships in TCR Europe, TCR Germany, TCR Russia and TCR Asia. “It’s become a very attractive proposition for teams,” Herta said.
While the Hyundais won’t compete for the overall win at Nurburgring, there have been two American drivers on the top-finishing team – Connor de Phillippi won in 2017 in a Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS, and Boris Said won in 2005 in the Schnitzer Motorsport BMW M3 GTR.
Past winners of the 24 Hours at Nurburgring include Hans Stuck, Niki Lauda, Klaus Ludwig, Pedro Lamy, Lucas Luhr, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Jeroen Bleekemolen. The 2019 winner was the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo, which completed 157 laps – that’s 2,433.5 miles. One hundred and two cars finished, 55 did not.
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