After twenty four hours of gruelling endurance racing, in poor conditions, this afternoon the Alfa Romeo Deutschland Alfa 147 2.4 20v JTD swept to its third consecutive clear victory in the 'Alternative Fuels' category of the 'world's toughest race': the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

The star-studded line-up of Herbert Schürg and Stefan Neuberger, joined for the race by FIA GT Championship Maserati driver's, Michael Bartels Michael and Timo Scheider, claimed victory for laps ahead of the Fuchs GT1-entered BMW 330d, and eight laps in front of the highly fancied VW Bora R-TDI.

The second Alfa Romeo Deutschland entry, the 1.9 JTD 16v turbodiesel powered Alfa GT Coupe, and piloted by a crew that included Alfa Romeo CEO Karl-Heinz Kalbfell and German TV actress Eve Scheer, hit trouble early on, while running close behind their team mates, and were forced to retired as the decimated field headed into the dead of the night.

At the green light, the no 249 Alfa Romeo 147 JTD had immediately swept into an early class lead, just ahead of the Alfa GT Coupe, an advantage which had grown to just under 30 seconds, and six track positions, by the end of the first hour.

With wet and difficult conditions, which are always a feature of this amazing and unique race, churning up the field, the Alfa 147 had climbed up to an excellent 41st place overall by the time the second hour had clocked round. It was a position which gave them an advantage of more than one minute and thirty seconds over their Alfa Romeo team mates, who were sitting comfortably ten places overall further back on the track.

However the third hour of the race, one-eighth distance, was to see disaster strike the Alfa GT crew, as technical problems out on the track meant the car lost more than a lap on the S1 class leader, by the end of the hour, plunging it firmly down the class leaderboard, and in the overall standings, to 123rd place overall.
 

With the drama playing out, the next hour was to tick round with the car now five laps adrift of their class leading team mates, and provisionally classified 167th. Meanwhile the Alfa 147 crew were scything through the field, up to a superb 23rd overall, and mixing it up with much bigger and faster machines.

Although the Alfa GT Coupe's Class S1 challenge faded out after the car had completed 56 laps, by half distance the Alfa 147's crew had a firm grip on proceedings in the 'Alternative Fuels' class: 26th on the road, and with more than a lap in hand on the chasing Fuchs GT1 Racing Team's BMW 330d, shared by Thomas Haider, Rainer Kutsch, Marc Hiltscher and Ralf Kraus. In fact this BMW would be their closest challengers all race and would finish four laps adrift at the flag.

So yet another historic victory, for the third consecutive year, was cranked out by Alfa Romeo Team Deutschland this afternoon. And with the Alfa 147 2.4 20v JTD fending off many more performance bred machines on its way to a simply stunning 13th place overall, it was an ample demonstration that Alfa Romeo turbodiesel engine family are a real, genuine sporting alternative.