What a start to the 49th season of the Nürburgring Endurance Series: Falken Motorsports celebrated a one-two victory right at the start. Sven Müller and Morris Schuring in the Porsche 911 GT3 R finished 3.068 seconds ahead of their team-mates Dorian Boccolacci and Nico Menzel. But that was not all, as four Zuffenhausen sports cars ended up in the top positions. Ayhancan Güven and Thomas Preining in the ‘Grello’ from Manthey-Racing and Matteo Cairoli and Bastian Buus in the Dinamic GT-Porsche completed the success for Porsche. At the 70th ADAC Westfalenfahrt, around 7,000 spectators visited the grandstands, the paddock and the exclusive spectator zones on the Nordschleife. For the first time in the history of the traditional racing series, more tickets were sold on a race day. Fans also showed great interest in the free Nordschleife spots at the first race of the season.
The first surprise of the day came from Frank Stippler in qualifying: in the Audi R8 LMS from JUTA RACING, he secured the first pole for the racing team led by ambitious Am drivers ‘SELV’ and Alexey Veremenko with a time of 7:51.530 minutes. A colourful mix of brands followed in the other positions in qualifying: the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport, the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo from Dörr Motorsport, the Ferrari 296 GT3 from REALIZE KONDO RACING with Rinaldi, the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 from Red Bull Team ABT, the two Mercedes-AMG GT3s from Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed and the BMW M4 GT3 from ROWE RACING. HRT’s second Mustang qualified 13th on the grid for its Nordschleife debut.
After the start, Stippler initially defended the lead. A brief rain shower between practice and the race turned the opening phase into a tyre thriller. At the end of lap one, the Abt-Lambo returned in the lead. The Dörr-McLaren was racking up the leading kilometres, as were the BLACK FALCON Team EAE Porsche 911 GT3 R, the Walkenhorst Aston Martin, ‘Grello’ and the two Falken Porsches.
‘The start was difficult because we started the race on wet tyres and came into the pits straight after the first lap to change to slicks,’ said Schuring, who celebrated his first NLS victory ten years after his father. ‘Gerwin’ won the 2015 season finale in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup MR from Black Falcon – the last non-GT3 victory. ‘But that later proved to be absolutely right, because the strategy worked perfectly.’ Müller added: ‘From 15th on the grid to first, that’s how you can work.’ Even though he ‘only’ finished second behind his team-mates in the end, Menzel was satisfied: ‘There’s no better way to start the new season.’ DTM champion Preining was also happy to have clinched a podium place in the end. After an involuntary spin in the AMG Arena on lap one, the Manthey duo fought their way forwards step by step from the back of the first starting group. ‘You couldn’t expect to finish third after the turbulent start phase,’ said the Austrian. ‘We were on the right tyres right from the start, which saved us a pit stop.
Behind the leading quartet, the ROWE-BMW, the GetSpeed-AMG #17, the McLaren of Dörr #69 and the Abt-Lambo finished fifth to eighth. The winners of the Pro-Am class were Daan Arrow, Gabriele Piana, Ben Bünnagel and Mike Stursberg in the Black Falcon 911.
Moran Gott is the first ‘Driver of the Race’
BMW 325i driver Moran Gott is the first ‘Driver of the Race’. The Israeli contested the race single-handedly with the vehicle that he had built up himself over the past six weeks. He was not discouraged by setbacks during the race either. An accident during the race was repaired in the pits by Sorg Rennsport, who looked after the vehicle on site, and even a tyre puncture in the final phase did not stop Gott from finishing fourth in his class. ‘Normally, I want to be honoured when I win,’ said Gott. ‘A lot of things didn’t go perfectly today – but I still wanted to keep going. To be honoured for that makes me a bit proud.’ The decision on the ‘Rider of the Race’ is made jointly by the NLS race organisers, the ILN riders’ group and the track announcer. The trophies are donated by the Nürburgring Long Distance Interest Group (ILN).
The first victory in this year’s newly created BMW 325i Challenge by Goodyear went to Jonas Spölgen and Eugen Becker. Second place went to Juha Miettinen, Dan Berghult and Oliver Frisse from Keeevin Sports and Racing. Simon Sagmeister, Jürgen Huber and Dirk Vleugels completed the class podium.
Father and son Bohrer win two races in one day
In the first race of the new NLS youth karting championship, eight-year-old Jonas Bohrer won his age group K1. Afterwards, he kept his fingers crossed for his father – and he followed suit with aplomb. In the NLS race, dad Michael Bohrer took first place in VT2-F+4WD together with Gerrit Holthaus in a Hyundai i30N. ‘A cool and perfect race day,’ grinned Jonas after the award ceremony, which took place immediately before the NLS class award ceremony. Mick Schmidt (ACV OC Lahnstein) triumphed in K2 for the kart kids, David Böttcher (MSC Konz) in K3, Florian Rauhe (MSC Adenau) in K4 and Tobias Mosdzen (KSC Wülfrath) in K5.
The second round of the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie will take place on 26 April. The ADAC Ruhrpott Trophy will then again cover a distance of four hours. Tickets for race number two are available in advance at vln.de/tickets for 25 euros (children up to and including 14 years free of charge). These tickets will take you to the open grandstands on the Grand Prix circuit, the exclusive spectator areas Brünnchen and Pflanzgarten as well as the paddock, the pit lane and the starting grid.
