The first half of the season for the THRacing Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (TTM) 2025 was held in Europe. Which venue could have been more fitting to send the participants off to escape the European winter than the Nürburgring 24h Circuit? Spanning 25.4 km across the GP Circuit and the famous Nordschleife while omitting only the unpopular parking lot that is Mercedes-Benz Arena, the Green hell in the Eifel mountains in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate is the longest track on the calendar by far. It's also the only TTM round that uses a double-file rolling start.
Based on the real-world weather forecast on site, the weather was cold with a stiff breeze of 15-20 km/h, but clear blue skies made for a track temperature of 14°C despite an air temperature of only 5°C - ideal conditions for rapid qualifying performances, with the race taking place the day before the first snowfall of the winter in Nürburg. Fittingly, this highlight of the season delivered fantastic and largely very fair on-track action that was brought to the viewers superbly by Microlin's great live commentary.
The streak of three-manufacturer podiums continued at Round 3. Just a single driver managed to stand on the podium more than once (after penalties) so far this season, and that's HappyKojot. The Polish Ford driver in the #727 entry of Side Heart Motorsport delivered a superb comeback drive after a weak start from the second row to win the nail-biter in the Green Hell. Marc Orós from Spain threw everything at it from Pole Position in the #45 Mercedes, but the Simruina Racing Team III driver ultimately had to settle for second place. The podium was completed by the defending TTM champion Jaroslav Cerny from the Czech Republic, who finally got through a race unscathed in the #1 BMW M3 of Asahi Motorsport.
Qualifying: Clash of Concepts
Pole Position for the prestigious round at this legendary stretch of asphalt in the Eifel mountains is coveted, and it was fought over intensely. Adding fuel to the inferno on the leaderboard, the track also offered cars with vastly different concepts and strengths to excel. Incredibly, five manufacturers qualified in the Top 6.
Mercedes-Benz finally took their first pole position of the season at the hands of Spanish driver Marc Orós from Simruina Racing Team III in the #45 entry with white mirrors and windscreen banner stripes to differentiate the car from its stablemates. Orós made the most of his ABS-equipped high downforce machine with an 8:54.133, having babied a set of new Soft tyres through a very careful 13 minute out lap to ensure their longevity for his smooth push lap.
He outqualified the reigning champion by 0.428 seconds, but that still allowed Jaroslav Cerny from the Czech Republic to put the #1 BMW M3 of Asahi Motorsport on the front row. The second row went to the pair of drivers who clashed in the battle for the lead at the season opener: HappyKojot in the #727 Ford Sierra RS500 of Side Heart Motorsports qualified in third, followed by Kuba Palubicki in the #20 BMW M3 of Linder Rennsport. Would these two finally make it through a battle without punting each other off?
Adam Celárek put the #17 Holden of Side Heart Motorsports into 5th, followed by Attila Diner (#27 Jolly Club) in the best Alfa Romeo. The pole sitter's team mate Ayrton Titos (#46 Simruina III Mercedes) qualified in seventh place, ahead of TTM debutant Alfie Bevan in the #99 BMW M3 of FRA Simracing. The Top 10 were completed by Valentin Knechtel (#26 Jolly Club Alfa Romeo) and DJMD19 (#48 Simruina II Mercedes).
Nissan and Audi continue their struggle through the season. The venerable Skyline HR31, already boosted to within an inch of its life and even beefed up with an unrealistic 4-channel ABS system, increasingly looks to be outclassed by the newer machinery it competes with. Jayden HW delivered the best qualifying result of the Nissan entrants and ended up 11 seconds behind pole position, with the 8th row being a very unusual sight for the touring car ace who leads the Side Heart Motorsports (SDH-M) team. While the Australian drives the 2025 TTM season as a solo entrant under the Side Heart banner, his team has been outnumbering even the six cars entered by Simruina! In addition to Jayden's Nissan, the Side Heart crew has been entering four pairs (!) of drivers in the teams championship as Side Heart Motorsports, Side Heart HIFI, Side Heart Pepsi, and the undercover duo that is labeled as Linder Rennsport. Audi's lone wolf Akira qualified 23rd and over 15 seconds behind pole position, but his quattro-powered time to shine may still be to come on the twisty city circuits of Australia and New Zealand.
The race
Dramatic Kickoff in the Green Hell
In sunny afternoon conditions of late autumn, the race got underway with a double-file flying start.
Our pole sitter Marc Orós waited until the last moment possible to let the race get underway, while Jaroslav Cerny paid the price for not having brought his car into formation alongside the Spaniard before Hohenrain: a huge gap formed between the two drivers on the same row.
Seeing this misaligned starting formation with even bigger gaps towards the back, it was probably for the better of the championship that Round 3 was the only one with a double file rolling start. Behind row 5, next to nobody seems to have understood that the race was green as soon as the pole sitter hit the throttle, because almost everyone waited to cross the start/finish line themselves before flooring it. The legendary reading comprehension of Simracers showed again. Back to school with you all!
Marc Orós defended the lead through the Haug-Haken, and the entire field remarkably made it through there with no more than a few scratches. Kuba Palubicki conquered 2nd from Jaroslav Cerny and defended the inside against Jolly Club's Attila Diner. HappyKojot bogged down at the exit and got passed not only by the Jolly Club Alfa Romeo, but also by his own team mate Adam Celárek in the Holden. On his TTM debut, Alfie Bevan (#99 BMW M3) then relegated the Pole to 7th with a pass around the outside through the Ford-Kurve, out of all places. The British newcomer from FRA Simracing honours the late BTCC legend Alan Minshaw with a derivative of his red Demon Tweeks livery from the 1988 season.Following an issue on the starting grid, D Weller (#6 BMW M3) from the USA started from the pit lane behind the rest of the field. Due to a number of withdrawals and an administrative miscommunication with a new driver who was promoted into the entry list shortly before the race, that saw the PRO3 driver getting underway in 35th place.The first accident of the race occurred just one position ahead of Weller. In the #25 BMW M3 with the 1992 ATCC livery of Tony Longhurst, Nicolas Bonnefon from France had somehow managed to steer into the grass in the braking zone for Goodyear-Kehre for unknown reasons, and promptly barged Radu Podasca (#70 Mercedes) into the gravel trap.What happened next is shrouded in mystery. The Frenchman waited promptly to redress the position, but began to cross over from the far left of the track towards the right when Radu Podasca reappeared behind him. Perhaps, the Romanian didn't recognize in time what was happening, and only lifted the throttle and darted to the left directly before he drove into the left rear corner of the BMW. Bonnefon then spun head-first into the tyre wall and resumed the race in last position, while Podasca continued on his way.Marc Orós led the field onto the Nordschleife for the first time, with the BMWs of Palubicki and Cerny hot on his heels.Adam Celárek caught big air at Quiddelbacher Höhe while chasing 4th-placed Attila Diner into Flugplatz.Boby Vakuinof caught a good amount of air as well in his Alfa Romeo, with Adam Keefe all over his rear view mirrors in the fight for 11th place.In the Side Heart Pepsi BMW, Jordi Sumoy tried to defend 19th around the outside against his Spanish compatriot Juanlu Gonzalez but ran wide and lost 6 positions. Behind them, the Mercedes drivers Christoph Mües (SG Stern) and Aymen Assabir (Spirit Racing Team Sprite) made contact at the exit, sending Assabir through the grass to the left of the curb in the following left-hand kink.Following a little more mutual paint exchange with the next car in line, Assabir went into Schwedenkreuz side by side with the Ford of Florian Masse, who went through at Aremberg.Under pressure from Adam Keefe, Boby Vakuinof locked up the brakes and went off at Adenauer Forst, denting his car and costing him 5 positions.At Bergwerk, the time had come for HappyKojot to release the shackles on car 727. With 540 turbocharged horses pulling the Sierra RS500 up the Kesselchen, Alfie Bevan had no choice but to surrender 6th place.No replacement for displacement: the roaring 5.0 Litre Iron Lion under the hood of Adam Celárek's Holden Commodore declared the Kesselchen a hunting ground as well, and the Czech driver snatched 4th place out of Attila Diner's hands after 2.2 bar of boost on his 1.76L engine proved inadequate to defend the position. Meanwhile, in the background, the other Jolly Club Alfa Romeo rapidly caught up to the Mercedes-Benz ahead.By the time they reached the camera, Valentin Knechtel was alongside Ayrton Titos and advanced to 8th.Another turbocharger, another pass: Potatohedron in the blue Sierra RS500 of Side Heart HIFI effortlessly flew past the Linder Rennsport M3 of Jacopo Hrynecko.Pitman in the #4 Mercedes brushed the tyre wall after outbraking himself at Klostertalkurve, costing him a position that went to the Suntory Nissan of Flashor. When he tried to get back underway a little too steeply, he emerged on a collision course with the #39 Holden of Maju, who was running wider than he had intended to but with plenty of room to spare if pitman had stayed more parallel to the edge of the track. The contact between the two sent pitman back into the guardrail, and down the order by another 3 positions.When pitman rejoined the track for the second time, he bullied Radu Podasca into lifting while he got passed by him, and then he stuck in his nose going into the Caracciola-Karussell. Their dispute about the right of way sent the Romanian spinning out.Running 4th, Adam Celárek then overcooked it into Eschbach and lost the rear end of his Holden.His subsequent spin gave the spectators at Brünnchen a front-row seat to not only Attila Diner's narrow escape on the left, but also ...... to this fantastic piece of precision evasive action by HappyKojot and Alfie Bevan, both of whom managed to clear the Czech driver's VL Commodore by a hair's width at the end of his spin.The British BMW driver then tested the slip angle limit of his M3 after putting the left rear wheel into the grass, and incredibly managed to remain in control of the car with hardly any time lost.Given the enduring lack of success for the Nissan Skyline 2000 GTS-R (HR31) in the TTM, Flashor spontaneously decided to branch out into different motorsports categories. After submitting an application for a D1GP cockpit at Eiskurve, ...... the German also won the Big Air Contest for Pflanzgarten I after hitting the curb on the left. However, Flashor paid for that one dearly, because he lost 4 places when he skidded through the gravel trap of the following right-hand curve.All four wheels on the Audi V8 quattro Evo of Akira left the ground when the Venezuelan flew through Pflanzgarten II (Großer Sprunghügel). His livery was adapted from Bernard Winderickx's 1992 Belgian Procar paintjob, which undoubtedly was inspired by the Renown-sponsored Mazda Group C prototypes.
After the boost came on a little too abruptly for Willphaizer at the exit of Kleines Karussell, the CiBiEmme Sport driver in Nicola Larini's 1990 Campionato Italiano Superturismo car (Chassis CBM005) spun out of 13th place and lost 13 positions.The inaugural up the Döttinger Höhe led to numerous position changes. Jaroslav Cerny passed his BMW stablemate Kuba Palubicki for 2nd. HappyKojot in the Ford passed the Alfa Romeo of Attila Diner for 4th. Adam Celárek powered past Alfie Bevan's BMW for 6th. Boby Vakuinof powered past DJMD19. Florian Masse passed GranTourer25. Rolf Biber passed Jordi Sumoy. Maju passed Willphaizer, and Flashor passed pitman.Butt-clenching moment at Tiergarten at the end of Lap 1: Jayden HW found himself on the grass at 300 km/h after he had to open up the steering halfway through the kink at Antoniusbuche during an ill-timed passing attempt for 11th place against the #9 Mercedes-Benz of Mina D'Orsi. The Australian managed to stay in control of his Nissan, and slotted in behind the Mercedes.
Paint and Positions were Swapped on Lap 2
In the #42 Mercedes of SG Stern, Christoph Mües had become a little too used to the turn 1 braking point of the AMG GT4 in ACC during the weekend. The reason for that was the Nürburgring 24 Hour race of Sim2Real, where he unexpectedly achieved a 3rd-in-class finish for SG Stern together with Valentin Knechtel, David Schubert, Sebastian Holler and Pascal Reihe mere hours before this TTM race. Going into Lap 2, Mües dropped the anchor far too late and bumped Juanlu Gonzalez wide enough for Aymen Assabir to pass both of them for 19th position.Valentin Knechtel powered past Alfie Bevan's M3 into 7th place on the run to Schwedenkreuz. Attila Diner in the Jolly Club sister car is seen holding 5th place in the foreground, with the windshield of Celárek's Holden in between.In the battle for 22nd place, Juanlu Gonzalez and Nat Stevenson went into the right-hander that leads to Flugplatz side by side. They made contact after the first apex because Gonzalez maintained an unusually tight line that left less than half of the track width to Stevenson.Unsettled by the contact between the two cars, Stevenson lost the rear and was hit by FMG's Suntory Nissan, which fired the #12 Alfa Romeo into the tyre wall before it came to rest facing the wrong direction.The unlucky Alfa Romeo driver could not have been further from the Top 10 finish he achieved in Imola while waiting for a sufficiently large gap for him to turn around and get back underway safely, when our stunt driver of the day managed to sideswipe him in the other Suntory Nissan despite yellow flags. Had Stevenson not already carefully crawled back towards the tyre wall mere seconds before that, this could have been a race-ending head on collision.The high-torque festival at Kesselchen continued on lap 2, when Adam Keefe's Holden Commodore with the iconic livery of the 1990 Bathurst 1000 winner roared past the Mercedes of Ayrton Titos to capture 9th place.Potatohedron passed Hrynecko's M3 a little later than on lap 1, only to lose the position again moments later at Klostertalkurve.Alfie Bevan went off and brushed his M3 along the guardrail towards Klostertalkurve to give his team some extra routine in realigning and repainting the car.When Attila Diner carried a little too much speed into the Caracciola-Karussell, Adam Celárek gladly accepted the gift and advanced to 5th place.Adam Keefe challenged Bevan for 8th around the outside on the run from the Caracciola-Karussell to Hohe Acht, but the BMW driver had other plans.Having already run into the back of DJMD19 (#48 Mercedes) at Fuchsröhre earlier in the lap, Florian Masse attempted to pass the Spaniard down the inside in the same place, but the 190E driver bravely stayed alongside all the way to Hohe Acht and defended the position - for now.Aymen Assabir and Christoph Mües locked horns at Eiskurve while battling for 19th place.Close call in the battle for 5th: Adam Celárek got loose through Stefan-Bellof-S, and Attila Diner briefly ended up in the grass after touching the Holden's rear bumper moments after this photo was taken.Mina D'Orsi spectacularly missed the Stefan-Bellof-S at 190 km/h in the colours that were driven by Klaus Ludwig in the 1991 Macau Guia Race, but got away with this stunt unscathed and kept 11th place.Orós continued to lead the way ahead of Cerny at the end of the second lap, while HappyKojot in the Sierra RS500 had already eclipsed 300 km/h by the time he flew past the M3 of Palubicki with a speed difference of close to 30 km/h. With a large gap having formed ahead of Celárek's 5th-placed Holden, the set of drivers to decide the race between was down to four. At the tail end of the Top 10, Keefe had managed to stay on the rear bumper of Bevan through the flowing curves between Hohe Acht and Galgenkopf, and now he powered past on Döttinger Höhe to grab 8th place.Another hairy situation unfolded at Tiergarten between Jayden HW and Mina D'Orsi, when D'Orsi drove into the back of the Nissan after the Australian had taken 11th place on the inside at Antoniusbuche.Having flown across the curb, D'Orsi's Mercedes rebounded hard after hitting the guardrail on the left, while Jayden HW frantically tried to stay in command of his Nissan.After cutting across the grass at Hohenrainschikane, he almost succeeded at keeping his car out of the guardrail, while D'Orsi smacked the Zung Fu 190E into the tyre wall in the background and lost a position to Boby Vakuinof's Alfa Romeo.
Composure counts and the battle for the win begins to heat up
The Bulgarian got alongside the Nissan on the run to Turn 1 because the accident at Hohenrainschikane had cost him momentum, but the Australian defended 11th place.Battle for Top 25 positions: Akira leads FMG's Suntory Nissan and Juanlu Gonzalez's Simruina Racing Team I Mercedes through the Haug-Haken. Aymen Assabir, Rolf Biber, and Maju lurk just outside of striking distance.Assabir muscled his way past the Nissan of FMG at Sabine-Schmitz-Kurve to capture 24th place.The high speed acceleration of Jordi Sumoy's BMW M3 was no match for the turbocharged Alfa Romeo of Willphaizer, and the CiBiEmme Sport driver's comeback drive after his early spin continued with 19th place on the run to Schwedenkreuz.Ford privateer Florian Masse from France advanced to 14th when he passed his US-American Ford stablemate Potatohedron (Side Heart HIFI) into Aremberg on Lap 3.Moments later, the Frenchman mistimed his turn-in point at Metzgesfeld and crashed into the tyre wall, which allowed the US-American and Jacopo Hrynecko in the second Linder M3 to get back ahead.His return to the Top 15 was far from smooth when he turned in too early during the run up the Kesselchen, and was launched into the air by the curb.Bigger is better, but not when you apply it to your own impacts with guardrails while battling for positions. Somehow, Masse managed to keep 15th place despite this scary situation that would have ended his race in real life.Juanlu Gonzalez defended 23rd place against Aymen Assabir when the two Mercedes drivers went side by side through Mutkurve.Their duel continued until the small carousel at Schwalbenschwanz, where Assabir barged his way through and sent the Spanish driver wide.Their battle allowed FMG to remain in striking distance until Galgenkopf, where he unleashed all 490 horses of his Nissan and passed both of them by the time he sped through Antoniusbuche.By the end of the Grand Prix Circuit, Assabir was in striking distance to FMG again and launched the Spirit Racing Team Sprite car down the inside of the Suntory Nissan to recapture 23rd place, with contact forcing the Englishman wide enough for Gonzalez to attack him as well.The Nissan driver put up a valiant defense, though, and took 24th after a side-by-side run into Hatzenbach had cost both of them so much time at the Everlast Holden of Maju was all over their tails now, while Rolf Biber outbraked himself in the Alfa Romeo of Swiss Buddy Racing.Maju attacked the Mercedes with all four wheels off the ground on the way to Flugplatz, but Gonzalez knew he could carry more speed through the curve and boldly slammed the door shut to stay ahead.Second place was a tight contest between defending champion Jaroslav Cerny in the #1 BMW, HappyKojot in the Ford, and Kuba Palubicki in the #20 Linder BMW - pictured here at Wehrseifen.Marc Orós maintained a healthy but far from comfortable gap over Cerny's M3 as he flogged his Mercedes-Benz through Ex-Mühle on Lap 3.The run up the Kesselchen hosted the next act of HappyKojot's turbo festival, and Jaroslav Cerny did not stand a chance when the Polish Ford youngster flew past our defending champion into 2nd place. In the orange M3 in the background, Kuba Palubicki had braked too late at Bergwerk and fell out of contention before realizing that he also had to save fuel on top of that.The air gradually became thinner for Valentin Knechtel in 7th place when Adam Keefe caught up to him wearing seven mile boots, but this attack while climbing up the Kesselchen into Klostertal was not successful. Keefe stayed on the German's rear bumper until Galgenkopf, though, and then powered past him on the run across the Döttinger Höhe.When Rolf Biber powered past Juanlu Gonzalez to claim 26th place, the Swiss Alfa Romeo driver cut across the Spaniard's nose too soon ...... and sent both of them crashing into the guardrail. Norwegian Ford driver Geir Akslen gladly accepted their two free positions but performed a pit stop at the end of the lap, which sent him back to 33rd place.Biber then outbraked himself at Klostertalkurve and drove straight into the tyre wall, allowing Gonzalez and pitman to get ahead.The leading margin of Marc Orós completely evaporated on Döttinger Höhe, and HappyKojot had to lift at Antoniusbuche to avoid driving into the back of the leader. The Mercedes reached 280 km/h here like in the 1992 DTM season, but the immensely powerful Ford adds more than 30 km/h to that figure.His team mate fared even worse that lap, because Ayrton Titos fell out of the Top 10 when both Jayden HW (#97 Nissan) and Boby Vakuinof (#36 Alfa Romeo) powered past him.The Australian Nissan driver then outbraked himself into Hohenrainschikane and activated Rallycross Mode when he jumped back onto the track with plenty of opposite lock, spectacularly remaining in control once again. The momentum he then lost on the opposite curb negated any advantage that this might have given him, and the race carried on.With both Mina D'Orsi (#9 Mercedes) and Florian Masse (#13 Ford) arriving behind them, it looked like a 5-way fight for the last spot in the Top 10 was starting to take shape.The comeback drive of Willphaizer in the CiBiEmme Sport Alfa Romeo (#5) continued as well. After passing DJMD19 (#48 with green mirrors in the background) at Galgenkopf, he also powered past his team mate from Simruina Racing Team II on Döttinger Höhe. GranTourer25 in the 190E with yellow mirrors (#47) launched a counterattack after the Alfa Romeo driver fell into turbo lag at Hohenrainschikane. This battle for 17th place continued all the way to the lowest point of the Grand Prix Circuit at Goodyear-Kehre, and Willphaizer won it.After he had passed Valentin Knechtel for 7th place, Adam Keefe quickly gained ground against the other Jolly Club Alfa Romeo driven by Attila Diner but threw it all away at Flugplatz, when the rear snapped sideways upon landing and he spun into the tyre wall. Knechtel was lucky to miss the spinning Holden after it rebounded from the tyre wall, and Keefe resumed the race in 9th place after Alfie Bevan had passed him as well.Mina D'Orsi spectacularly departed the train of cars contesting 10th place after putting the right rear wheel into the grass in the approach to Adenauer Forst.
Battle for Glory and Late Skirmishes
Still in the lead but with a much smaller margin that on the previous lap, Marc Orós led HappyKojot and Jaroslav Cerny through Ex-Mühle on Lap 5.The Simruina driver from Spain managed to defend the lead on the run up the Kesselchen.At Wippermann, Jaroslav Cerny's BMW was all over the back of the Ford again.Marc Orós did everything in his power to open up a gap to HappyKojot, who was able to keep Jaroslav Cerny behind himself despite the BMW's advantage through these fast curves. Would that be enough?HappyKojot answered that question by the time they got to the Tourist Entrance on Döttinger Höhe, where the Polish Ford driver stormed into the lead. The other Simruina Racing Team III entry driven by Ayrton Titos fared no better, because Florian Masse came flying through to 12th with his rev limiter spitting flames out of his Ford's side exhaust.Titos's chances of a Top 10 result ended in the next braking zone. After hitting the right curb at Tiergarten, he got on the grass in the braking zone and spun into the end of the tyre wall at Hohenrainschikane, where his car came to rest facing the guardrail head-on.When he got back underway, he found himself having to fight over 15th place against Jacopo Hrynecko, who soon managed to pass him. In the background, Willphaizer really wanted to be in the picture as well.Battle scars all over the cars of the four squabblers fighting over 22nd place: Aymen Assabir ahead of Christoph Mües, FMG, and Maju.HappyKojot could not shake off Marc Orós, and Jaroslav Cerny had managed to catch up to them by the time the leading trio made its way through Wehrseifen on Lap 6.The Ford stormed off into the distance on the run up the Kesselchen, but how well were its tyres going to hold up? HappyKojot gambled with how far the 20% improvement in tyre durability across the field might be able to get him, by selecting the Hard (H) compound instead of the more durable Extra Hard (HX) tyre.The Jolly Club Alfa Romeos turned out to be surprisingly toothless in the Green Hell, which demanded higher top speeds than the optional 6-speed gearbox could provide. Attila Diner and Valentin Knechtel went for different 5-speed gear sets and didn't have the race pace to challenge the Top 5 here. After relatively silent races, they went on to salvage 6th and 7th place.Orós and Cerny were all over HappyKojot's rear again by the time they got to Eiskurve.At Schwalbenschwanz, the Spanish Mercedes driver managed to stick in his nose going into the small carousel and recaptured the lead, giving himself crucial breathing room over the BMW of Cerny.The Simruina Mercedes lifted its inside front wheel off the ground while Orós hammered it through Galgenkopf with the Ford of HappyKojot and the BMW of Cerny right on his tail.The Nürburg watched over the action as HappyKojot immediately retook the lead on Döttinger Höhe.HappyKojot escaped into the distance again but Marc Orós's move on him at Schwalbenschwanz had ensured that Jaroslav Cerny was too far back to pass him for 2nd place. In the background, Adam Celárek closed the gap to the Linder BMW of Kuba Palubicki but was too far back to attack him for 4th place.Ayrton Titos continued to fall down the order. Unable to keep the pace of Jacopo Hrynecko's M3, he lost 16th place to the Alfa Romeo of Willphaizer when they passed the ED gas station on Döttinger Höhe.The battle for 22nd place ended when Aymen Assabir stuck his 190E into the guardrails between Pflanzgarten I and Pflanzgarten II, allowing Christoph Mües to sneak through. Assabir lost another two positions on Döttinger Höhe, whre both FMG (Nissan) and Maju (Holden) sped past him.The battle for 4th position was settled on the final lap, when the Commodore of Adam Celárek bounced excessively as a result of his underdamped setup and the way he landed the jump at Quiddelbacher Höhe. Lucky for Palubicki, who had underestimated the thirst of his BMW M3 and had to apply plenty of Lift & Coast just to get to the checkered flag.The Czech Holden driver was lucky to emerge facing the right direction after bouncing along the tyre wall and guardrail at Flugplatz, and had to settle for 5th place.Going into Caracciola-Karussell on the final lap, it looked like HappyKojot would be the sure winner. In the background, however ...... Jaroslav Cerny was all over the back of Marc Orós, who had already gone to the limit and beyond when he ran wide at Mutkurve without touching the guardrail.The defending TTM champion's attack on 2nd place ended when he ran wide in the final climb to Hohe Acht.While Cerny barely managed to keep the car on track with his dirty tyres, he lost a lot of time and that cemented third place for the Asahi Motorsport driver.Incredibly, the Mercedes driver from Spain then managed to melt down the lead of HappyKojot to less than a second by the time they rounded the small carousel at Schwalbenschwanz for the final time, because the Hard tyres on the rear axle of the Ford were reaching the end of their service life.With his rear tyres wearing down to their carcass for his final pass through Hohenrainschikane, HappyKojot ended up accelerating sideways from the sudden loss of grip. With an inspiring drive that saw him fighting his way back up from an early drop to 7th place and onwards all the way to Victory Lane with the fastest lap of the race (8:58.020), HappyKojot deservedly won Round 3 of the TTM 2025 and scored Ford's first victory of the season!Marc Orós gave it everything with a flawless performance: from Pole Position, he led the first five laps, defended successfully against the reigning champion and challenged HappyKojot on the final two laps at every opportunity. Second place was a bittersweet result for the man from Spain, who brought the 190E from Simruina Racing Team III across the line without a scratch and just 2.561 seconds behind the winner.The reigning TTM champion finally proved the naysayers wrong: the man from the Czech Republic still has what it takes and drove a fantastic race, staying in contention for second place until shortly before the checkered flag fell. Jaroslav Cerny brought his spotless BMW M3 across the line just 4.427 seconds behind the winner, but the title defense will be an uphill battle for him.
Palubicki's Linder BMW and the Side Heart Motorsports Holden of Celárek rounded out the Top 5, followed by the Jolly Club Alfa Romeos of Attila Diner and Valentin Knechtel. Next in line was TTM debutant Alfie Bevan in the #99 BMW M3 of FRA Simracing. The Top 10 were completed by the Asahi Motorsport Holden of Adam Keefe and by Jayden HW (#97 Side Heart), who rewarded his valiant effort by scoring Nissan's second Top 10 result of the season. Audi's lone warrior Akira took home 21st place and missed out on the Top 20 by 15 seconds.
BMW finally had a strong presence in the Top 10, with the addition of Alfie Bevan enabling the Bavarians to put three cars into it - more than every other manufacturer. Both Holden and Alfa Romeo brought two cars into the Top 10 respectively. The big surprise was the armada of Mercedes-Benz: Marc Orós was the only driver who made it into the Top 15 in a car with a three-pointed star on top of the grille, highlighting that the race really didn't go according to plan for the other nine cars of the Swabian manufacturer. Maybe this could have gone differently if meisterJäger hadn't withdrawn their 11th car during the qualifying week despite an encouraging qualifying performance. Ford was a similar one-man show: they won the race, while their second best car barely missed out on the Top 10, even though Florian Masse was the top mover with 10 positions gained.
Official Top 5 Results
HappyKojot (Ford Sierra RS500) — 7 laps, 64:12.275 — best 8:58.030
Marc Orós (Mercedes 190E Evo II) — +2.561s — best 8:59.587
Jaroslav Cerny (BMW M3 EVO3) — +4.427s — best 8:59.152
Kuba Palubicki (BMW M3 EVO3) — +15.132s — best 9:00.371
Adam Celárek (Holden VL Commodore SV) — +19.990s — best 8:58.356
Next across the line: Attila Diner P6, Valentin Knechtel P7, Alfie Bevan P8, Adam Keefe P9, and Jayden HW P10.
What it means for the championship
The season uses the familiar 40‑37‑34‑31‑30‑29… points system with one drop result per driver in the drivers and teams championships, but not for the manufacturer championship that only mirrors the points achieved by each brand's top scorer of the race:
#727 HappyKojot leads with 77 points
#20 Kuba Palubicki is 2nd with 71 points
#26 Valentin Knechtel is 3rd with 70 points
#45 Marc Orós is 4th with 68 points
#27 Attila Diner is 5th with 66 points
Rest of the Top 10: Adam Celárek (64), Jaroslav Cerny (62), Ayrton Titos (53), Boby Vakuinof (53), and Adam Keefe (53).
In the teams championship, Side Heart Motorsports retook the lead with 141 points, but Jolly Club remains in striking distance at 136. Simruina Racing Team III holds 3rd (121), but Asahi Motorsport (115) is hot on their heels. Linder Rennsport completes the Top 5 at 104 points.
The manufacturers championship after Round 3 is an intense dogfight between five manufacturers. At the top, Alfa Romeo and BMW are neck and neck with a tiny margin over Ford and Mercedes, while Holden gradually begins to fall behind with just a single podium result so far. Nissan is more than 20 points behind the Australians, and Audi marks the red lantern with only a single privateer driver on their roster.
The wild battles throughout the entire race have highlighted once more that the Nürburgring 24h Circuit is a well-deserved fixture of the TTM calendar. Florian Masse's impressive climb through the ranks showed how much can be achieved in a race despite a poor qualifying, while DJMD19, Ayrton Titos, and Juanlu Gonzalez demonstrated that a good qualifying result only gets you so far when the race doesn't work out in your favor.
Their fortunes are certain to change as the TTM circus now heads across the globe to escape the European winter for the second half of the season. At the upcoming round in New Zealand, the Turbo crowd can probably be happy just to get into the Top 10, because this is the hunting ground of 2.5 liter naturally aspirated cars and the unbeatable quattro traction of the Audi.
Next up: Wellington Street Circuit: a tricky jungle of concrete walls, hairpins, and tight junctions. Who will remain level headed enough to make it through on top?
