Porsche will be well represented with 34 of their cars on the grid.

Porsche will dominate the starting grid at this weekend's 24 Hours of Nürburgring (ADAC 24h Rennen Nürburgring) which, to over 200,000 race fans, is the ultimate in German motor sports. But not only is it a huge draw for fans, but it ranks quite high with Porsche's factory drivers, with five of the German marque's pilots competing for various teams. A total of 34 Porsche's will square off against other competitors, making it the most popular car at this year's endurance race.

Sharing the driving duties behind the wheel of the Manthey Racing Porsche GT3 RSR are Timo Bernhard of Germany and French driver Romain Dumas. Completing the quartet is German driver Marc Lieb and Marcel Tiemann of Monaco. Bernhard and Dumas drive for Penske Racing in the American Le Mans Series and are the current points leaders. This group of four drivers won last year, with Bernhard having additional victories in 2006 and 2007.

“It would be absolutely fantastic to manage a hat-trick,” Bernhard said. Dumas added, “But the competition is really tough this year. In our favour, we have a reliable and fast car and on the driving side we are very balanced.”

“A large number of our customer teams are again putting their faith in the ability of the Porsche 911 GT3,” Hartmut Kristen said, who is head of Porsche motorsports. “The Porsche teams will not have an easy job in defending the title. In 2008 the more powerful SP8 class vehicles with up to a 6.2 litre capacity weigh all of 50 kilos less than last year.”

Prior to the start of this race, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas will run some demonstration laps in two Porsche RS Spyder's on the northern loop known as the Nordschleife. Nothing like the sound of two 476 hp 3.4-litre V8 engine's to wake you up in the morning!

This, the 36th running of the Nürburgring 24 hour race, begins May 24th at 3pm local time, ending at the same time the following day.

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