The 24 Hours of the Nurburgring is not as much a race as it is a war of attrition. Twenty-four hours of non stop racing on arguably the world’s toughest and most unforgiving circuit in the world does one hell of a job at sorting out the men from the boys. More specifically, it sorts out the well prepared, mentally tough, and spectacularly skilled drivers from the ones who approach it as just another race on the calendar.

To the teams it’s a true test of toughness, but to the German fans it’s the equivalent of Labour Day weekend in the States. The barbecues come out, little portable TVs are tuned to the race results, and the beer starts flowing as the brake callipers start glowing. It’s a celebration of everything that’s good in life – racing, friends, nature, and the smell of burnt rubber, stressed transmissions, hot engines, and high octane petrol. A hearty “oh yeah” grunt à la Tim ‘the Tool Man’ from Home Improvement comes to mind when thinking about the sheer awesomeness that is the 24 hours of the Nurburgring.

On Saturday May 19th BMW Motorsport started their pair of Z4 GT3s from pole position with a school of angry SLS Mercedes GT3s and Audi R8 LMS in behind. Unfortunately, unscheduled pit stops for the best placed car number 29 and a damaged drivetrain for car number 19 that started in pole saw BMW failing to cross the finish line first. And although four BMW Z4 GT3s were in the top ten, BMW couldn’t help but make a video to promise its fans that 2013 will mark a better result. Enjoy the unusually emotional video from BMW Motorsport below.