ADVAN x HRT’s #9 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Salman Owega, David Schumacher and Hubert Haupt claimed the German marque’s first NLS victory since 2020 on Saturday in the series’ annual six-hour encounter.
The win came in a race that ended with Cup 2 cars occupying three of the top five positions overall after most of the SP9 GT3 field crashed out in tricky conditions.
But this was a race which will not be remembered for Saturday’s on-track action. The meeting was marred by a tragic incident in the paddock during Friday testing and set up when an explosion caused by a compressed air bottle caused multiple serious injuries to team personnel.
In response, the VLN has set up a donation account to support those affected. More information on this can be found HERE.
NLS4 was chaotic, held on a sombre weekend and didn’t run for the full six hours, but it ended up producing multiple milestone results.
For Schumacher and Owega, it was their first NLS victory, and at 19-years-old, Owega became the second youngest winner in the 47-year history of the NLS (formerly VLN). Only Jörg van Ommen has a win at a younger age, the former DTM driver securing his first victory in 1981.
The unusual result came after two pile-ups just a few minutes into the race as rain began to fall with the field on slicks. The sudden showers eliminated most of the contending SP9 field, which was already down a starter after Manthey pulled its Porsche as a result of the Friday incident.
The incidents prompted race control to stop the race for nearly two hours. And when it restarted the front-running order had a brand new look.
Behind the winners in the #9 Mercedes, two Cup 2 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars from Black Falcon Team 48 Losch and AVIA W&S Motorsport completed the podium. Steve Jans, Tobias Müller and Gabriele Piana were delighted with second place and a class win ahead of Daniel Blickle, Tim Scheerbarth and David Jahn who took third.
“P2 with a Cup 2 car is huge, even if we all know that we benefited from the accidents,” said Müller. “We really pulled through. The race wasn’t easy. I was sitting in the car when the downpour came. It felt like swimming free.”
The final phase was a challenge for Piana: “I’m exhausted. A great result. Tobias and Steve set a good pace, I just had to bring the result to the finish.”
Behind them and off the overall podium, the SP9 Am-winning car finished fourth. Michael Heimrich, Lorenzo Rocco and Arno Klasen combined to complete 29 laps in their équpe vitesse Audi R8 LMS GT3.
The best placed Pro-Am GT3 car was the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Huber Motorsport, with drivers Hans Wehrmann, Joachim Thyssen and Thomas Kiefer finishing 11th on the road.
Because the winners completed more than four hours of racing across the two parts to the red-flagged race, full points were awarded. The title battles will continue with NLS5 and NLS6 on October 19 and November 16.
Images courtesy of Frozenspeed
