Indian racer Akshay Gupta scored a podium finishing at the 2025 edition of the iconic 24 Hours of Nurburgring. Sharing the privateer #808 Cupra TCR DSG with teammates Junichi Umemoto, Lutz Obermann and Dennis Leissing, Gupta finished third in the class after overcoming early gearbox issues. FK Performance Motorsport took class victory with a BMW M2 Racing, while Bulldog Racing was second with the Mini John Cooper Works Pro.
- Gupta’s #808 Cupra completed 101 laps
- #310 FK Performance BMW M2 won in the class
Nurburgring 24H: Gupta P3 in SP3T class
Privateer Cupra overcomes early gearbox trouble
The #808 Cupra was struck with a gearbox issue on the formation lap itself, and tumbled from P5 to P7 at the start. Nevertheless, Obermann then carved through the pack and made 15 passes within seven laps, taking the Cupra up to third place before handing it over to teammate Leissing.
During Gupta’s first stint, the Indian driver hustled the car up to second place, but the gearbox issue turned up again. This triggered an unscheduled pit stop that dropped the #808 Cupra to fourth place. The privateer did benefit from some retirements throughout the gruelling 24 hour race, though, and was eventually elevated to a comfortable third-place spot behind the factory BMW and Mini entries.
Just after midnight, the #303 Hyundai Elantra N Cup car suffered a huge crash, promoting the Cupra to second place. But the race was far from over. At around 6am, Umemoto was involved in an incident with a Porsche Cayman and marshals had to tow the damaged Cupra 5km to the pits where mechanics rebuilt the front-end and replaced the rear suspension within just 1 hour 45 mins.
With the gearbox finally behaving, Gupta and Leissing nursed the car across the chequered flag in third place, completing a total of 101 laps.
"They really say this race chooses its winners. I now know what it really means. We had the pace to win, and the top win cars were almost 30 seconds off the pace and yet they are there. It's disheartening. But I'm not complaining too much. Podium is still a lot given how intense the competition was and how crazy this race is,” Gupta said after the race.
Dinshaw Magol
