That tension allows enthusiasts like 66-year-old Juha Miettinen to race the Nordschliefe, and it also puts them in situations such as the one in which he found himself, when (it is suspected) fluids dropped by another car caused a seven-car pile-up at Klostertal, and Miettinen — driving the #121 BMW 325i — lost his life.

Miettinen was a serious enthusiast of sports car racing in general and the Nürburgring in particular, having competed multiple times in the N24 and other events there since 2018, always in a BMW 325i. He loved this place, as all his fellow competitors do, whether they were Formula 1 world champions or devoted amateurs like he was.

The first day’s 24H Qualifiers race was red-flagged for the accident and not resumed. A minute of silence in memory of Miettinen was observed during the formation lap for the following day’s race, which was won by the #16 Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS GT3, driven by Christopher Haase, Alexander Sims, and Ben Green. The #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Max Verstappen and Lucas Auer charged to the front early under Verstappen’s command, but mysterious front splitter damage sidelined them in the garage and took them out of contention. Verstappen insists he didn’t hit anything.

The racing goes on, but this year’s N24 will be raced in Miettinen‘s memory. I hope to see many tributes to him at the race.

I do not find this HWA car as straightforwardly cool as rolling out a Z4 GT3 for the simple reason that this is not the real car; it’s a road-going product they’re building and selling 100 of for almost $900,000 a pop. If it does, however, rip around the Nordschleife for 24 hours, I will hop in line to praise it.