ADAC GT Masters drivers and teams made their mark in the thrilling battle for overall victory in the 40th ADAC Zurich 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. 2007 ADAC GT Masters champion Christopher Haase secured a win for Phoenix Racing along with ADAC GT Masters race winners Marc Basseng, Frank Stippler and Markus Winkelhock, giving Audi its first overall victory in the 'green hell'. A total of eight ADAC GT Masters race winners finished on the podium.

The first ADAC GT Masters race was held six years ago as a support event for the Nürburgring 24-hour race and ended with victory for Christopher Haase in a GT3 sports car, co-driven by Gianni Morbidelli. Six years later, the 24-year-old from Kulmbach in Bavaria and the most successful driver in the 'League of Super Sports Cars' to date achieved the biggest success of his career at the Nürburgring 24hr race with a win in the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra, along with Marc Basseng, Frank Stippler and Markus Winkelhock.

The father and son team of Peter and Chris Mamerow came home second behind Haase in the first race of the ADAC GT Masters in 2007 and six years later, the racing team led by Peter Mamerow were also second over what is 24-times the ADAC GT Masters race distance; ADAC GT Masters returnees, Chris Mamerow, former ADAC GT Masters champion Christian Abt, ADAC GT Masters race winners Michael Ammermüller and Armin Hahne brought their Audi R8 LMS ultra home in second place.

The scrap for third place was full of drama but ended with about 20 minutes to go, when the HEICO Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 of ADAC GT Masters champion Alexandros Margaritis, Bernd Schneider, Kenneth and Lance David Arnold emerged victorious. However, radiator damage subsequently put the Gullwing out of contention for a podium and it failed to finish. HEICO team-mates Christiaan Frankenhout, Andreas Simonsen, Pierre Kaffer and Lance David Arnold came to the rescue and overtook the Manthey Porsche of Lieb/Lietz/Dumas/Luhr in an action-packed final lap to secure the final place on the podium.

Winner of the ADAC GT Masters season opener Maxime Martin came home in fourth place, narrowly missing a podium in the BMW Z4 GT3 Marc VDS along with Bas Leinders/Markus Palttala. Christopher Mies, who had led for a long time in Phoenix Racing's second Audi R8 LMS ultra, finished in fifth place after 24 hours of racing.

The two Schubert Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3s crewed by Dirk Müller/Jörg Müller/Uwe Alzen/Dirk Adorf and Claudia Hürtgen/Dominik Schwager/Nico Bastian/Dirk Adorf finished in seventh and eighth place respectively.