The BMW NLS freight train continued to power on last weekend in NLS4, the #34 Walkenhorst M4 GTe of Jakub ‘Kuba’ Giermaziak and Christian Krognes continuing the Bavarian brand’s unbeaten run in NLS competition this year.
The duo’s BMW finished over two minutes clear of Björn Grossmann, Jonathan Hirschi and Luca Ludwig’s octane126 Ferrari, which scored a memorable result in the team’s first start with the 296 GT3.
Further back it was far from a clean sweep for BMW though, as Maxime Dumarey and Mike David Ortmann who celebrated the first podium finish this year in their SP9 Pro/Am entered PROsport Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
The #5 Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II from Scherer Sport PHX finished third, while the fastest Porsche was the Cup 911 of Team Mathol Racing e.V. that took the chequered flag in fifth place, making it five brands in the top five.
Frank Stippler secured pole position in the qualifying session with the aforementioned Audi from Scherer Sport PHX with a 7:53.112 lap. At the end of the formation lap, however, the German had to make an unscheduled pit stop for safety reasons after his tyre was damaged by debris. It forced himself and teammate Vincent Kolb to spend the remainder of the race on a recovery drive.
PHX’s woes meant Ortmann took the lead and defended it until his first pit stop on lap six. From there the #25 Porsche 911 GT3 R from Huber Motorsport and the Cup Porsche from KKrämer Racing took turns in the lead before the eventual winners in the Walkenhorst M4 took control of the race on lap nine. For the remaining 19 laps the winning BMW built a comfortable gap and only lost the lead briefly during pit cycles.
“It feels incredibly good to have won half of the races so far in the Nürburgring Endurance Series,” said Giermaziak after the race.
“The car was perfect. And after our bad luck at the 24h Race, this is now exactly the right result to start the second third of the season at full throttle.”
The result also marked the second overall NLS win for Walkenhorst this season.
“There was no chance of beating BMW today,” said Grossman in the chasing Ferrari. “But we must not forget that this was our first start this year. Considering that, it went really well.
“We worked our way up the field quite well in the race and gained a lot of experience for the upcoming races.”
Beyond SP9, the battle for SP10 GT4 class honours was a thriller, with just 2.299 seconds separating the top two at the flag.
Adding to Walkenhorst’s successes, its BMW M4 GT4 of Aris Balanian, Florian Weber and Ace Robey took the win with a last lap pass and finished ahead of Michael Tischner, Uwe Kleen and Heiko Tönges in the Toyo Tyres Ring Racing Toyota Supra GT4.
Next up for the NLS teams is the annual ROWE 6h ADAC Ruhr Cup race on July 8th.
Images courtesy of Frozenspeed
