The inaugural 12 Hour NLS race on Saturday and Sunday, with a pair of 6-hour stages, saw victory for the #3 Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Joel Eriksson, Jaxon Evans, Sven Mueller, and Alessio Picariello.
The fan-favourite Falken Porsche came home 15.222 seconds clear of the #16 Scherer Sport Team Phoenix Audi of Kuba Giermaziak and Kim Luis Schramm with Audi’s sister #5 R8 LMS GT3 Evo II completing the podium with Vincent Kolb and Frank Stippler.
The #16 had looked set to take the win until the car coughed, almost out of fuel into the final pitstop and then struggled to restart, the delay just enough for the Porsche crew to overhaul the Audi.
The #3 Falken Porsche 911 GT3 R had held a near-minute-long lead as the first six-hour portion finished in darkness on Saturday ahead of Björn Grossmann and Luca Ludwig in the #26 Team Octane 126 Ferrari 488 GT3. The eventual third place trio in the #16 Audi completed the Saturday portion in third.
Qualifying had already become a thriller in wet conditions but drying out dramatically towards the end of the session, Giermaziak set the fastest time in 8:19.189, closely followed by the #34 Walkenhorst-BMW M4 GT3 just 1.530 seconds behind.
A surprise followed in third place: Gabriele Piana drove the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from Black Falcon into third on the grid, a first for a Cup 2 car in the NLS/ VLN.
With tyre choice in changeable conditions creating a lottery at first, the first six hours saw the lead change hands no less than seven times. The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of G-Tech Competition, the Ferrari 488 GT3 of octane 126, the Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Scherer Sport Team Phoenix and the Falken Porsche all leading the field.
The cars remained in parc fermé on the start-finish straight until the second part of the race on Sunday. The restart taking place at 10:00 hrs with the same intervals in which the cars were flagged home on Saturday.
The fastest car on Sunday was the Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Scherer Sport Team Phoenix before a strategic mistake after 58 laps saw, Schramm enter pit lane with an empty tank. “It’s not always the fastest car that wins, in which case we would be at the top of the podium,” Giermaziak admitted. “On Saturday we were on the wrong tyres once, which also cost us a lot of time. Nevertheless: It’s nice to be on the podium, but it’s not nice to be only second.”
Meanwhile, Frank Stippler and Vincent Kolb, who drove the sister car of Scherer Sport Team Phoenix and finished less than a minute behind the front runners in third place, were really happy. “We certainly didn’t do everything right on Saturday, but we didn’t do everything wrong either, which is confirmed by our third place at the end,” said Stippler. Kolb added: “I lost some time when I was on slicks in the heavy rain in the early stages. That was like driving on black ice. Today we didn’t lose much time and we are happy with the result.”
“It wasn’t clear to us until the end whether we would really take home the victory because, based on the time monitors, we didn’t know exactly how long our competitors would need at the last stop,” said eventual winner Sven Müller.
”Ultimately, we were extremely happy to win the 12h Nürburgring, too, after having already won the 6h race. The conditions in the first six hours were really tough. With slicks and a lot of rain, it was difficult to keep the car on the track. Today the weather was no longer a factor. It was still really close in the end.” Müller welcomes the format of the 12h Nürburgring: “We had a lot of fun driving into the night yesterday. The restart was interesting as well.”
Behind the top three, Björn Grossmann and Luca Ludwig in the Ferrari 488 GT3 from the team octane 126 finished fourth. After the duo had still been in a fight with the leaders in changing conditions on Saturday, they lacked the pace in the dry to climb the podium.
Fifth place went to Marcel Marchewicz and Marek Böckmann in the Schnitzelalm Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3. The fastest SP9 Pro-Am car, the Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Lionspeed by Car Collection Motorsport, was driven by Leon Köhler, Simon Reicher, Florian Spengler and Jörg Viebahn who finished eighth.
The Cup2 911s, new this year, caused a sensation in the early stages of the race. Starting from third position, Gabriele Piana (Black Falcon) moved into first place immediately after the start with the right tyre choice. After the first lap, Fabio Grosse in the G-Tech Competition counterpart led.
Even though the Cup 911s could in the end no longer compete for the very top positions, they showed their potential: After 12 hours, Daniel Blickle, Tim Scheerbarth and David Jahn in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from AVIA W&S Motorsport just missed out the top 10 and finished eleventh.
They collected the 30 points for first place in the class, as did Mauro Calamia, Ivan Jacoma and Kai Riemer in the fastest Cup3 Cayman.
In VT2-R+4WD, Daniel Zils, Oskar Sandberg and Sindre Setsaas triumphed in the BMW 330i of the Adrenalin Motorsport Team Alzner Automotive. Thus, the top two teams in the championship have each scored maximum points. The gap in the drivers’ standings remains unchanged at 17 points with three races to go.
Jahn/Hinzer/Sidorenko/Schroers (VW Golf, GITI TIRE MOTORSPORT BY WS RACING) in VT2-FWD, Epp/Uelwer/Kaatz (Renault Clio Cup, MSC Adenau) in SP3 and Markert/Reimer/Deißler (BMW M240i Racing Cup, Adrenalin Motorsport Team Alzner Automotive) also scored maximum points.
“From a sporting point of view, almost everything went perfectly – so the many hours of preparation were worth it,” said Michael Bork, VLN Head of Sport and Race Director. “In particular the restart was a highlight of the event. We received a lot of positive feedback from the participants.”
Ralph-Gerald Schlüter, Managing Director of VLN Sport GmbH & Co. KG: “For the first time in the history of the series, a race was jointly organised by two organisers. ACAS and DMC have succeeded in fulfilling this in an exemplary manner. Both clubs complemented each other and played to their strengths.”
The sixth race of the Nürburgring Endurance Series will take place on 8 October. The 54th ZEWOTHERM ADAC Barbarossapreis of the MSC Sinzig will run over the usual NLS distance of four hours.
Pictures by Frozenspeed
