With just a few hours remaining before the Nürburgring 24 Hours gets underway, Alfa Romeo are in pole position to make it a hat-trick of wins in the 'Alternative Fuels' class, with their star-studded driver line-up.

The Nürburgring 24 Hours is comfortably one of the most gruelling events on the motorsport calendar, of of the few remaining genuine tests of man and machine, and an event that attracts huge numbers of highly enthusiastic spectators. So this afternoon, two hundred and twenty four racing cars will begin this annual twenty four hours of continuous, hard racing around the legendary 24.358km circuit, in what is the self-styled 'world's toughest race'.

The 'Alternative Fuels' S1 class has become in recent years one of the most hotly contested categories in the race, with factory-backed entries from VW, BMW and SEAT. Against this opposition Alfa Romeo Deutschland has entered a specially race-adapted the Alfa 147 JTD, which has triumphed over the last two years, while last year's race also saw the competition debut of the turbodiesel Alfa GT Coupe.

For 2005 Alfa Romeo Deutschland are back with a two car line-up comprising of a the double race winning JTD-powered Alfa 147, and the same GT Coupe, which last year made such a strong impression before it retired mid-race.

So for this year's marathon event Alfa Romeo Deutschland have assembled an ultra-strong driver line-up, peppered with star names, the most famous of which is Alfa Romeo's new Chief Executive Officer, Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, no less.

Kalbfell, who is now charged with taking the newly formed Alfa Romeo-Maserati unit forward, actually took part in the 2003 edition driving a specially prepared 200bhp MINI Cooper Works. Kalbfell was then the BMW Group's Marketing Director, and he was joined for the one-off event by BMW Motorcycles Sales and Marketing Director, Peter Muller, and Paul Harvey, the John Cooper Motorsport oficial test driver. The trio achieved a classified finish in the MINI despite a quick visit to one of the legendary circuit's many gravel traps, a back-end suspension failure, and rear end accident damage.

Alfa's new boss is not the only 'star' name in car no 250, as the GT Coupe's driver line-up will also include German actress Eve Scheer. She is a famous actress in her native land due to her role in the RTL television soap “Unter uns”. The 28-year-old has driven in the German Alfa 147JTD Cup for the past two years, where she has achieved a number of victories, while her long-distance experience is cemented as last year she drove in the GT Coupe at this track on the occasion of its race debut.

Bernd Ostmann, along with highly experienced Alfa-tuner and racer Franz Engstler, complete the race-winning driving strength in the stunning no 250 Alfa GT Coupe.

Meanwhile, the Alfa 147 JTD, which is bidding for a record hat-trick of diesel-powered successes in this toughest of arenas, also boasts a highly experienced driver line-up.

Star German drivers, Michael Bartels and Timo Schneider, have been drafted in to drive the no 249 car. The highly experienced pair, both former DTM race winners, are this year piloting one of the two Vitaphone Racing Maserati MC 12 sportscars in the FIA GT Championship.
 

Last weekend the pair finished in second place during FIA GT round two at Magny-Cours, a race that saw the awesome Maserati MC 12 sweeping the board. Bartels in fact has history with the Italian brand to call upon, as he drove the famous Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI in the DTM and ITC series' during its mid-1990s heyday.

Stefan Neuberger returns to drive the Alfa 147 JTD once more. He was one of the quartet of drivers who won the S1 class last year in the Alfa 147 JTD after finishing three laps ahead of the chasing VW Bora R-TDI, and claiming a truly amazing 24th place overall, sandwiched between a Zakspeed V8 STAR Jaguar, and a Porsche GT3-RS. Herbert Schürg completes the crew in the no 249 car.

ALFA ROMEO 1-2 IN QUALIFYING

Beating off stiff opposition from BMW, SEAT and VW entries, the no 249 Alfa 147 JTD stormed round the demanding Nürburgring track during the two qualifying sessions to set the class pole wining time, a completely unapproachable lap of 10.05.235.

The second official Alfa Romeo Deutschland entry, the Alfa GT Coupe backed them up ably, pipping the quick VW Bora R-TDi of Eberhard Rattunde, John Lloyd, Wayne Moore and Helmutby Bolz, by just seven-tenths of a second, to make it an Alfa Romeo one-two in S1 on the grid.

Overall, Jürgen Alzen, Uwe Alzen, Klaus Ludwig, and Peter Dumbreck, set the pole position with a best time of 8:30.848 in their Porsche 996 Turbo. Another Porsche, this time a 911 GT3-MR, joins them on the front row, before the two works-entered BMW M3 GTR racers line-up behind. Close attention is being focused on this title-winning car, which includes FIA WTCC BMW regulars, Jorg and Dirk Müller, and Andy Prilaux, amongst its top-class crews, as the car making its last factory outing in this race.