It was a second consecutive NLS win for the Falken Motorsports squad as Dorian Boccolacci and Alessio Picariello took the overall win at NLS2, the inaugural ADAC Ruhrpott Trophy on Saturday in their Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The duo finished with a comfortable lead of 30.751 seconds over Christian Krognes and Mattia Drudi in the Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.
Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, Raffaele Marciello, and Kelvin Van der Linde in the ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 Evo completed the podium.
The race took place in bright sunshine with a substantial crowd at the Nürburgring for round 2 of the NLS..
Frank Stippler secured pole position for the second consecutive time – once again in the JUTA RACING Audi R8 LMS rather than the Haupt Racing Team’s brand-new Ford Mustang GT3 which he also shares.
Stippler also dominated the first stint of the four-hour race and held the lead – albeit only until lap seven.
After that, the two Falken Porsches moved into the lead.
Tim Heinemann and Dennis Marshall, in the sister car to the eventual winners, fell back due to a pit stop problem, and on the final lap, Krognes had to concede defeat in the Aston Martin when, in a stroke of luck for the Falken team, The Walkenhorst duo received a time penalty for failing to meet the minimum pit stop time and were ultimately classified second.
The ROWE quartet prevailed in a thrilling finish against the debuting Porsche 911 GT3 R of Scherer Sport PHX.
Patric Niederhauser and Patrick Pilet completed the race in fourth place. Heinemann and Marshall crossed the finish line in fifth, ahead of the Ferrari 296 GT3 of REALIZE KONDO RACING with Rinaldi.
“Last time, I was already delighted with second place in my first GT3 race in the Green Hell; now I’m standing at the top of the podium and I’m very happy,” said Boccolacci.
“Because of the penalty (for the Walkenhorst Aston), I didn’t have to take full risks on the last lap.”
Teammate Picariello was full of praise: “Dorian has mastered an extremely steep learning curve and, after the podium in race one, went straight to victory in his second. Fantastic.”
Even though he ultimately had to settle for second place, Krognes wasn’t entirely unhappy:
”This is a very good start to the new season for me.”
For Drudi, NLS2 was the first race in an Aston Martin on the legendary Nordschleife. “It’s a shame about the win,” he said. “But the car ran perfectly, and we can be happy with the data we’ve collected.”
Starting from ninth on the grid, the podium finish was a success for the ROWE squad. “It was a chaotic race for us with many caution periods – we can be satisfied with the result,” said Farfus.
With pole-sitter Stippler on board, ‘SELV’ and Alexey Veremenko drove to victory in the Pro-Am category of the SP9.
The top finishing SP9 Am car – the Audi R8 LMS GT3 of équipe vitesse – was driven by Michael Heimrich, Lorenzo Rocco, and Arno Klasen.
After two races, three teams have a clean slate. Heiko Eichenberg and Harley Haughton took their second Cup 3 victory in the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS of SRS Team Sorg Rennsport.
Arne Hoffmeister and Tim Scheerbarth followed suit in the Cup 2 in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup of Mühlner Motorsport.
Philipp Leisen, Philipp Stahlschmidt, and Daniel Zils also secured another class victory in the VT2-RWD in the BMW 330i of Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhattan Wheels.
Zils also took the class win in V6 and was named ‘Driver of the Race.’
In the AT3 class for alternative fuels, Dominik and Marcel Fugel, together with Moritz Oestreich, took the class win in the Porsche 911 GT3 of Max Kruse Racing.
The team took the win ahead of the debuting Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS M of Team eFuel Griesemann driven by Björn and Georg Griesemann. The vehicle fielded by Manthey completed its first outing in the Green Hell without any problems, completing 26 laps. Third place went to Michelle Halder, “Tom” and Robert de Haan and Luka Wlömer in the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Four Motors Bioconcept-Car.
Iron Dame Michelle Gatting and young Porsche racers Robert de Haan and Alessandro Ghiretti took a podium finish in AT3 in their Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Four Motors Bioconcept-Car. All there completed the necessary laps towards their ‘Ring Permits
So too did Inter Europol duo Tom Dillman and Kuba Schmichowski in the BMW M240i class with fourth place in class for their #670 car.
And it was ‘Ring permit success too for Robert Wickens in the TCR class, the #831 Hyundai he shared with Michael Lewis and Youngchan Kim also came home fourth in class with the required laps completed.
“It felt really good to be back in the Green Hell,” said Wickens. “I love the track and have only fond memories of the Nürburgring from my DTM days.” “It’s quite different from the sprint races I compete in the US. The Nordschleife is extremely tight and unforgiving. You rarely get clear laps, and especially during Code 60 or 120 phases, I have a lot to do with my hands. But I quickly got used to it.”
