Last weekend Alfa Romeo raced to another highly impressive win in the 'Alternative Fuels' class of the Nürburgring 24 Hours, the 2.4 Multijet unit proving itself to be both fast and very robust on the world's toughest race track in what is billed as the world's toughest endurance race.

Alfa Romeo already have a trio of wins in the S1 Class set aside for 'alternative fuel' cars, with the Alfa 147 powered by the 1.9 Multijet 16v unit, the wins coming during a back-to-back run in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Last year the burgeoning class was split into two categories and despite strong entries in both classes Alfa Romeo ran out of luck.

This year the Italian brand was back, and again with a 2387cc 5-cyl Multijet powered Alfa 147 entered under the Altenburger Destillerie banner which to take on string of BMWs of 130d, 330d and 335d variety as well as several other fancied challengers including a Ford Focus ST Bio-Ethanol and a Volvo HS4, the latter which grabbed class pole position with a lap of 10:09.136. Two of the drivers who piloted the 147 2.4 last year until it retired at the 18-hour mark were back in the car: Dietrich Hueck and famous German lady racer Ellen Lohr, best remembered for her exploits at the wheel of a factory Mercedes-Benz in the DTM series during the 1990s.

They were joined by Frank Diefenbacher and Hubert Nacken who completed the line-up. Diefenbacher is an accomplished former single-seater racer (F Ford, F3, F3000) who then spent several recent seasons with the SEAT factory team in the FIA World Touring Car Championship. Last year he contested the Nürburgring 24 hr race in a Carlsson CLK and gained further endurance racing experience he won the diesel class right at the end of last season in the Dubai 24 Hours driving an Alfa 147 JTD. Nacken was one of the crew in the best placed Alfa 147 JTD to finish in last years Nürburgring encounter, 5th in Class S1.

The 22.810 km Nürburgring circuit is known as the 'Green Hell' and it is one of the toughest imaginable tests of machine. However last weekend the #278 Alfa 147 2.4 hardly missed a beat as it raced from a starting spot of 5th place on the grid (its best qualifying lap was in 10:20.068) to an impressive victory in Class S2 and 86th place overall. The crew of Nacken, Lohr, Diefenbacher and Dietrich, completed 86 laps which was 26 laps less that the overall race winning Porsche 911 GT3-RSR of Timo Bernhard, Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Marcel Tiemann.
 

The Alfa's winning margin was just one lap ahead of the second placed BMW 335d crewed by Henning Meyersrenken, Bernd Albrecht, Norman Starke and Reinhard Schall, although a comfortable 13 laps ahead of the third placed BMW 330d of Giovanni Carotenuto, Mauro Simoncini, Mario Oldani and Edo Varini.

In Class S1 the MSC Ruhr Blitz Bochum e.V. entered #259 Alfa 147 1.9 JTD shared by Martin De Groot, Rüdiger Förster, Uwe Göbel and Rolf Kienen finished 11th in class and 136th overall, 24 laps adrift of the category-winning, factory-supported BMW 120d. A second Alfa 147 1.9 JTD, the #252 ORMS Racing-Wiemann entered car, driven by Hans Hahnel, Christian Feineis, Remo Friberg and Herbert Schürg was placed 150th overall, 15th and the last of the classified S1 class runners. 157 cars were eventually classified after 24 hours of tough racing.

The Alfa GT 1.9 Multijet, which was in 2006 driven by an all-star crew that included the then Alfa Romeo CEO Karl-Heinz Kalbfell and German 'soap opera' TV actress Eve Scheer, was this year entered under the Altenburger Destillerie banner and piloted by Werner Habermehl, Dietrick Hueck (also sharing duties with the #278 car), Martin Richter and Elton Goonan. It retired from Class S1 though as did the Alfa 147 1.9 JTD of the regular Brunswick Motorsport Nürburgring 24 Hr entry, which was driven by David Smith, Malcolm Edeson, Dean Ronald Clements and Nick Reynolds.

The best placed Italian car overall at the end of 24 hours was the Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 of Stephan Rösler, Andreas Kitzerow, Floran Scholze and Georg Silbermayr which finished in 42nd place. After qualifying 37th and starting from the pitlane and loosing time with an on-course puncture the Lambo-Racing.de entered machine climbed as high as 16th place and second overall in class before gearbox problems intervened, forcing the drivers to complete the last hour and a half in fourth gear. Despite this setback they were still able to finish second in Class SP8.