From Spec Miata to the Nürburgring: Taylor Hagler and Hyundai take on the Nürburgring 24

“It’s a little terrifying, and a little nerve-wracking,” Taylor Hagler says of her first experiences at the legendary Nürburgring. “I’ve spent some time in the sims, and they do a good job of teaching you how the track flows and helping you learn it, but they absolutely don’t give you a sense of the real nuances. Like the elevation, or the narrowness of the track. It’s basically two cars wide.”

Still, Hagler—who drives a TCR class Hyundai Elantra N in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge in the U.S.—is adapting quickly after just a couple of experiences at the ‘ring. And it’s a good thing, too, because the clock is ticking. On the weekend of May 20-21, Hagler and her teammates from the U.S. Hyundai IMSA TCR program will team up in the Rhine Forest to contend the legendary 24 Hours of Nürburgring.

[Here comes Hyundai | When did Hyundai become a major motorsports player?]

Even though she’s got years of experience and pro licenses stateside—as well as some NASA Spec Miata championships when she was still a teen—the N24 doesn’t care if you’re a multi-time F1 champ. To qualify for your first round-the-clock adventure at the Green Hell, you have to complete their specific licensing and training regimen.

Photography Credit: Courtesy Hyundai

For Hagler, this meant attending the Nürburgring’s own training session, consisting of a ground school and a day of supervised lapping, followed by a couple of races in the Nürburgring Endurance Series—basically the same classing structure as the 24-hour contest, but with shorter, 4-hour-long races. And don’t think you can just loaf your way through those races, either. Finish too far down in your class and your ticket to the 24-hour show might not get punched.

Hagler’s plan for attacking her accreditation effort? “Don’t take any naps,” she chuckles, “but, really, half the battle is getting on to local time so your brain and body feels like race time is race time. The German Hyundai factory drivers have all been really helpful as well, but just because of the nature of the track being so long, it’s still not like you can do a ton of laps to learn. In the qualifying races we’re all only getting like four or five laps each, so at some point you just sort of need to fall back on skill and previous experience.”

For Hagler, she believes her previous experience behind the wheel of a Spec Miata will pay big dividends at the Nürburgring. “The thing Spec Miata teaches you is track awareness and how to run in a crowd. The Nürburgring is so narrow, and it’s long but there are still so many cars [the 24 Hour can see up to 180+ cars take the green] that you’re always in traffic, and you hardly ever get to drive your ideal line. So you’re just always in this sort of mode where you’re creating and reacting to each moment and lots is going on. That’s very much what Spec Miata is like.”

Photography Credit: Courtesy Taylor Hagler

Hagler also credits her time in club racing with accelerating her learning curve. “With Spec Miata, it’s not a priceless car, so you’re sometimes a little more willing to take risks,” she says. “I mean, crashing is always bad, but when a car is relatively cheap to fix, sometimes you’re a little more willing to push the limit, and that’s how you learn.”

Pushing the limit for 24 Hours at the Nürburgring in a factory Hyundai Elantra race car with Hyundai Motor America co-drivers Mason Filippi, Harry Gottsacker and Michael Lewis will require a much more restrained approach during an event that can see conditions from sunny and 80 degrees Fahrenheit to near freezing rain to blinding fog, sometimes simultaneously on the track that covers nearly 11 square miles of German forest.

[Hyundai Elantra N: Better performance than a Civic Type R?]

“For me, I think just getting to the checker is going to be an accomplishment,” Hagler claims, perhaps too modestly, as she and her Bryan Herta Autosport-supported teammates have all finished in podium spots during all their pre-24 qualifying races.

“It’s also such a special experience to race there. I’m not sure I’ve really fully processed the enormity of the event yet because I’ve just been so focused on the racing part of it,” Hagler says of her three trips to Germany for qualifying competitions–one of them coming just hours after exiting her car at the Pilot Challenge race on the Friday of the Sebring 12 Hour weekend. “The fans are amazing there. I love our fans in the US. It’s so fun getting to interact with people during grid walks and in the paddock, but the way the tracks are in the U.S., for the most part you don’t have any real sense of the crowd from inside the car. At the Nürburgring, it’s more like playing a sport in a stadium. You just constantly see people everywhere, and see them cheering and getting excited. Even for our qualifying races it seemed like most of the track was lined with fans.”

Photography Credit: Courtesy Bryan Herta Autosport

Hagler will get to see a lot more of those fans in a couple of weeks as all of the US-based Hyundai team has now qualified for the 24-Hour. GRM will be on the ground in Germany as well, following along with the Hyundai effort, and cheering for our favorite former Spec Miata champ as she vaults into international endurance competition.

Comments

Displaying 1-3 of 3 commentsView all comments on the GRM forums

You'll need to log in to post.