The ROWE 6h ADAC Ruhr Cup race saw a win for Falken Motorsports. Joel Eriksson and Sven Müller taking only the fourth overall race win in the VLN for the team.
The Falken Porsche came hoe a comfortable 1:14.562 ahead of Frank Stippler and Vincent Kolb from Scherer Sport Team Phoenix Racing in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 followed by Christian Krognes, Ben Tuck and Andy Soucek in the BMW M4 GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better debut. First race for Falken, equal to the first victory. Sven helped me a lot this weekend with my debut in the GT3 car, which I really enjoyed. I knew it would be tough on the track, but not that it would be that tough with all the traffic and constant overtaking,” said Joel Eriksson.
It started spectacularly. Philip Ellis in the Schnitzelalm Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 improved from third to first place before the first corner. Ellis cheekily overtook on the right-hand side of the start/finish straight, almost touching the concrete wall. The 29-year-old gave his team the first overall lead in the NLS. Ben Tuck followed in the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4 GT3. With a time of 7:51.330 minutes, Krognes’ team secured pole position. The biggest loser in the early stages was Frank Stippler in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Team Scherer Sport Team Phoenix, for whom he initially dropped from second to sixth place.
50 minutes earlier, the first three of the battlers had been hit at the Adenauer Forst. The trio of Andy Soucek, Kim-Luis Schramm and Miklas Born slid off the track on a spill of oil. For Born, Marcel Marchewiecz, Marek Böckmann and Philip Ellis in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Schnitzelalm Racing and Schramm as well as Jakub Giermaziak in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Scherer Sport Team Phoenix, the race came to an early end. Soucek lost more than a minute in the BMW M4 GT3 and dropped back to fourth. The major beneficiary was Julien Apothéloz, who was driving the Mercedes-AMG GT3 alongside Luca-Sandro Trefz and Patrick Assenheimer from the Landgraf Motorsport team. The trio ended up fourth.
After going off on the oil trail, Soucek expected the end of the team’s effort.
“If you see what happened to us, we have to be satisfied with third place in the end. When I got kicked out I thought game over. Then I sat in the car and didn’t do anything for 40 seconds and then tried it, the car worked. The Stippi always defends very well. Christian did a great job, he tried everything. He pushed hard, then such a spin can happen. In the end we have to be satisfied,” said Andy Soucek.
“My first victory on the Nordschleife in the NLS feels great. I’ve often come second. The Falken crew definitely deserved that. We had a tough year with a lot of accidents. And to be at the top after a clean race feels really good. At the Adenauer Forest, I was just able to catch the car on the oil trail, the others just flew off. You can’t see something like that, luck was also part of it,” said the victorious Sven Müller.
There was still a little over two hours to go when Joel Eriksson passed Patrick Assenheimer in traffic and the Swede then steadily extended his lead. Christian Krognes and Patrick Stippler provided entertainment in the last hour of the race. The two fought a spirited battle for second place and swapped positions several times until Krognes briefly lost control of his car just before the end and the subsequent 360-degree turn cost him five seconds. The duel was decided.
“We overtook each other twice on the Döttingerhöhe. That is what defines the Nordschleife and is part of the fascination that you have these slipstream duels here due to the long straight with a similar speed of the cars. I saw that he turned away. But I also knew that he had enough talent to catch himself elegantly. I expected a lead of five or six seconds. But then I soon saw the yellow lights in the rear-view mirror again. So there was nothing to take a deep breath,” said Frank Stippler, describing the duel from his point of view, and Christian Krognes added: “I gave 100 percent, I really wanted second place. I knew that would be the maximum. I’ve tried everything. I strayed a little bit from the right line once, and then I had to pay for that. But I’m also happy with third place.”
In the SP9 Pro-Am class the win went to the Audi R8 LMS GT3 from Lionspeed by Car Collection Motorsport with Lorenzo Rocco, Dennis Fetzer, Leon Köhler and Klaus Koch.
Top ten result for the winner of the Cup 2 class
In the Porsche Endurance Trophy Nürburgring, a team from the Cup 2 class once again made it into the top ten in the overall standings. The class winners Tim Scheerbarth, David Jahn and Daniel Blickle from the AVIA W&S Motorsport team finished ninth with their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Fidel Leib, Philip Miemois, Heiko Eichenberg and Moritz Wiskirchen were the fastest in the Cup 3 class in the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS from Sorg Rennsport.
Adrenalin defends the championship lead
Daniel Zils, Oskar Sandberg and Sindre Setsaas successfully defended their lead in the Nürburgring Endurance Series overall Championship standings. The trio of the Adrenalin Motorsport Team Alzner Automotive took the fourth win in the fourth race in the BMW 330i in the VT2-R+4WD class. In second place are Mauro Calamia, Ivan Jacoma and Kai Riemer from Schmickler Performance powered by Ravenol, who finished second in Cup 3 with the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982).
The NLS continues after the summer break with the highlight. From September 9th to 11th the 12h Nürburgring will take place for the first time.
