The Nurburgring 24 Hours is renowned for the challenging weather that frequently befalls the event. Leh Keen’s “Rain Dance” is a classic piece of footage from a rainy night at the ‘Ring and dense fog rolling through the Eifel Mountains has at times red-flagged the race through the night. But last weekend’s 2016 running of the N24 brought a new weather challenge that ground the race to halt in its opening hour: Hail. The heavy rainstorm sent dozens of cars skidding off the track, but an accumulation of hail left turned one section of the track into an icy parking lot.

Ironically, the race began in sunshine but within the first 60 minutes, the heavens had opened. After hail and torrential rain halted the race, the race organizers red-flagged the event for several hours until the weather broke, the track thawed, and the standing water receded. It took most of 10 hours for the rain to go away entirely and the damp track clearly favored the Mercedes with at times six of their AMG GTs at the front of the field. Fog lingered on parts of the 13-mile circuit for almost the entire race, but most of the 150 teams kept their cars running.

Ultimately, Mercedes took the four top spots and five of the top six, but there was plenty of intra-marque battling. The #29 HTP Motorsports Mercedes led much of the race, but a splash for fuel with nine minutes remaining put the #4 Black Falcon Mercedes right on the car’s tail. Both cars crossed the start/finish line with under a minute remaining, which sent them on one more 13-mile trip around the ‘Ring. Maro Engel in the Black Falcon car ultimately shoved his way past Christian Hohenadel’s HTP Mercedes early in that last lap and with time expired on the clock, Engel romped away with a clutch win for Black Falcon.