Sussex racing driver Will Hunt gearing up for 12h Nürburgring podium assault

Will Hunt is gearing up for the headlining event of the 2023 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS), the 12h Nürburgring (9-10 September).

The Motorsport UK Academy alumnus returns to the cockpit of the #501 Adrenalin Motorsport BMW 330i production touring car, along with Toby Goodman, Klaus Fassbender and a fourth driver who is yet to be named.

In June, Radical SR1 Cup race winner and Vice Champion Hunt made his long-awaited return to competition and his international debut in Round 4 of the NLS, with backing from Hailsham-based automotive transmission parts distributors and Torque Converter remanufacturers, Sussex Autos.

Teamed with ex-FIA Lotus Cup Europe Champion Goodman and Germany’s Fassbender, Hunt raced to a VT2 R+4WD class podium on his maiden competitive outing on the notorious Nürburgring Nordschleife.  

The Brighton racer then revisited ‘The Ring’ in July for the ROWE 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen, in which he, Goodman, Fassbender and James Lay – his main rival for the 2021 SR1 Cup – were mired by a recurring fuel pump issue that resigned them to a still respectable sixth-place result.

As the Adrenalin-run quartet undoubtedly had the pace to repeat the NLS 4 success, Hunt is determined to add silverware to his mantlepiece in the 12h Nürburgring, although he’s unwilling to underestimate the task at hand.

As in previous rounds, a massive field of up to 165 cars, from thoroughbred GT3 sportscars operated by professional teams to touring cars that closely resemble their road-going counterparts, will compete for victory in approximately two dozen groups.

The race is split into two six-hour segments across Saturday and Sunday, and Hunt will participate in the second leg to earn a permit that will enable him to enter the NLS’s uppermost classes from 2024 onwards.

The Sussex Autos-supported racer is keen to savour what is sure to be a memorable experience, especially as the 2023 edition of the 12h Nürburgring is twinned with Red Bull Formula Nürburgring.

The weekend encompasses a full on and off-track programme that features superstar drivers and legendary cars from the worlds of Formula 1, endurance racing, Nascar and drifting.

Among the highlights, four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel will reunite with the Red Bull RB7 he took to his second title in 2011, and Mathias Lauda will drive the iconic Ferrari 312 of his late father and three-time championship-winner Niki Lauda on the full Nordschleife.

However, current Scuderia Alpha Tauri driver Yuki Tsunoda will also be joined on-track by former F1 stars David Coulthard, Gerhard Berger and Ralf Schumacher in a broad spectrum of race cars, to create a truly superlative festival of motorsport.  

“I thoroughly enjoyed my previous experiences in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie and it’ll be hugely exciting to take to the track in the 12h Nürburgring, which is the headline event on the NLS calendar with a real festival atmosphere, especially with the addition of Red Bull Formula Nürburgring.

“Both times Toby (Goodman), Klaus (Fassbender) and I have teamed up, we’ve shown the potential to be on the podium, and we achieved silverware on one of those occasions. There’s no reason why we can’t do it again and to take to the rostrum on the 12h weekend would be amazing, especially with all that’s going on around this race. The most basic objective is to earn a permit to compete in the higher classes of the NLS, but we always want to do as well as we possibly can and will be pushing to end the season with a big result.”