Alexander Mies has been competing in the VLN endurance championship Nürburgring since seven years. And he is not simply there, the 25-years old can look back onto a brilliant résumé of his career so far. Mies, who was born in Velbert North-Rhine Westphalia, scored 31 class wins out of his 73 starts. Mies stands for a guarantee of success. “I would not have dreamed of this at that time. That means a victory at almost every second race. This is quite a good performance”, he says humbly.
This endless story started on the 30th of October 2010. Mies made his debut in the VLN at the 35th DMV Münsterlandpokal with a BMW 318ti in class V2. And he won his class right away. “I remember that very well. I jumped in at the deep end. It was my first race at the Nordschleife and I was only 18 years old. This was the last VLN race of the season and we had this Eifel-typical October weather. Rain, wet, dry, always changing. I completed the race more or less alone. Tobias Neuser did only one or two laps as he was a double starter then. That was an amazing experience.”
The last VLN season of Mies in class Cup2 with the GIGASPEED Team GetSpeed Performance Porsche 911 GT 3 Cup was a fantastic addition to this impressive series of wins. After a retirement at the season opener, the 63rd ADAC Westfalenfahrt, he started to accelerate quickly. Three class wins in a row followed, first of all the victory in Cup5 with the BMW M235i Racing Cup and then two more in Cup2 at his double start at the ROWE 6 Hour ADAC Ruhr-Pokal Rennen. He did not finish the race that day with the Porsche. In 2017, the VLN Champion of the year 2016 scored the total of six wins in class Cup 2. At the 47th ADAC Reinoldus long-distance race, he took exceptionally only second place together with his team mates Tim Scheerbarth and Steve Jans.
“I am very happy with the 2017 season. We started from where we finished the previous year. When we finished a race, we actually always won our class. In terms of performance, we were on a similar level throughout all the races. The battles with car number 75 were really exciting. It was definitely a highlight for me to fight with competitors in a fair manner. I got used to the Porsche very quickly. And I was on the same level with Steve and Tim. Everything was running perfectly. The final summary is a very positive one”, says Mies.
In the VLN, Alexander, who exercises his professional activities in the metal foundry company of his father Peter Mies, is considered to be one of the all-rounders. He has so far already competed in almost every class (Cup 1, Cup 2, Cup 5, Specials 3, Specials 8T, Specials 10, V2, V3, V4) and with many different cars (BMW 318ti, BMW 320si, BMW 325i, BMW M3 GT4, BMW Z4, BMW M235i, Opel Astra Cup, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup). Hereby, he has a special memory of one particular car: “Purely considering the car itself, the BMW Z4 prepared by Bonk Motorsport which I drove in 2013 was a highlight for me. To 95 percent, it was equipped with the technology of the WTTC cars. It was not the best car in terms of performance, but the sound was cool. You could go up to a speed of 10,000 rpm, it had a sequential gearbox with a very nice gear lever in the centre. Other highlights were the Porsche or the Audi at the 24 Hour Race. Yet, these are totally different race cars again”, says Mies who finally won five out of the seven VLN races in which he participated with the Z4 in the class of Specials 3.
The triple winner of the VLN Junior Trophy (2013, 2016, 2017) wants, if things go as desired, to score more successes at the legendary Nordschleife in 2018. He can, though, not yet reveale details about how and where he will compete. “It is in any case my target to start in the VLN again. I can, however, not yet provide any concrete information. I am always quite late in that. There are relaxed and informal discussions currently. I would like to continue on the same level. I will try to find something that I will enjoy and where I will feel comfortable within the team.”