The third round of the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie was a feast for every motorsport fan. Four hours of thrilling racing action with countless, sometimes spectacular overtaking manoeuvres and beaming winners. After 29 exhausting laps in the Green Hell, Ayhancan Güven and Thomas Preining in the Porsche 911 GT3 R celebrated the 58th victory for Manthey EMA. At the finish, their lead over Maro Engel, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed was 11.163 seconds. After two consecutive victories, Falken Motorsports’ winning streak at the 56th Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy came to an end. Sven Müller and Morris Schuring drove their 911 to third place.
Starting from pole position, Manthey starter driver Güven dominated the first four laps. On the fifth lap, he first had to concede defeat to Ricardo Feller in the Scherer Sport PHX Porsche 911 GT3 R, only to storm to the front again just a few kilometres later. The Scherer 911 was in the leading group for long stretches, but had to pit for refuelling one lap before the end and dropped back to sixth place overall. The sister car, the Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO 2 of Christopher Haase and Luca Ludwig, was also involved in the battle for the podium positions, but dropped back shortly before the final stint while running in second place. Because a tyre failure was imminent, Ludwig steered the R8 into the pits at slow speed to prevent major damage. David Perel, Axcil Jefferies and Thomas Neubauer in the Ferrari 296 GT3 of REALIZE KONDO RACING with Rinaldi also clocked up their first leading kilometres in the third NLS race of the season. However, the alternator failed after the first stint, bringing the race to a premature end. GetSpeed collected seven leading laps. The team from the business park at the Nürburgring also set the fastest race lap with a time of 7:52.588 minutes.
‘We had to wait more than a year for this victory, that was quite a long time,’ said Preining after the race. “We’re super happy that it went so well. We still have to work on a few little things and it certainly won’t be boring with the DTM races in between.” Stolz was also satisfied: “That was a really good race and I had a lot of fun on the Nordschleife in this great weather. Manthey narrowly beat us in the end. Next time, we hope to be able to climb one step higher on the podium. We will not rest on our laurels.” After the race, Schuring was named “Driver of the Race” by representatives of the race management, the ILN Drivers’ Association and the NLS presenters because, despite his young age, he had caused a stir with exceptionally intelligent yet spectacular overtaking manoeuvres. ‘I’m happy to accept this award – it’s a great honour for me, especially when you look at the experienced professionals I battled with in the race.’ Commenting on the race, the Dutchman said: “Even though we didn’t win today, we can be very satisfied. The competition was very strong today. We will now analyse everything in detail and want to take the next step in the qualifiers in a fortnight’ time.”
The second Falken Porsche finished fourth after four hours ahead of the best-placed Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo from Walkenhorst Motorsport. Ben and Phil Dörr won the Pro-Am classification in SP9 with the McLaren 720s GT3 Evo. Arno Klasen, Eric Ullström and Michael Heimrich were the fastest Am drivers in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 from équipe vitesse.
Cup 2 victory and championship lead for Mühlner Motorsport
With their third victory in Cup 2 of the Porsche Endurance Trophy Nürburgring, Tim Scheerbarth and Arne Hoffmeister also took the lead in the NLS standings. Together with David Jahn, the trio in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup branded by H&R Spezialfedern relegated Tobias Müller, Noah Nagelsdiek and Carlos Rivas from LOSCH Motorsport by Black Falcon to second place. Victory in the Cup 3 went to Joshua Bednarski, Kai Riemer and Lorenz Stegmann, who drove the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS from W&S Motorsport. After an accident in qualifying that could not be repaired before the race, Heiko Eichenberg and Harley Haughton from SRS Team Sorg Rennsport, who were tied for first place in the championship after two races, recorded their first scratch result. Similar bad luck befell Daniel Zils, Philipp Stahlschmidt and Philipp Leisen. After a tyre failure on the BMW 330i of the Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhattan Wheels, the team discovered consequential damage in the pits and ended the race prematurely. Zils / Stahlschmidt / Leisen had also travelled to race three as championship leaders. The winners in the VT2-RWD were Jan-Piet Ooms, Calvin de Groot and Marius Rauer in the BMW 330i of SRS Team Sorg Rennsport. De Groot thus took the lead in the NLS Junior trophy.
The closest finish of the race was in the V6 class. Klaus Faßbender, Christian Büllesbach, Andreas Schettler and Daniel Zils in the Porsche Cayman S from Adrenalin Motorsport Team Mainhattan Wheels were just 1.736 seconds ahead of Christian and Thomas Heuchemer in the Porsche 911 from Schmickler Performance powered by Ravenol.
Thrilling action for the NLS kart kids too
There were beaming children’s eyes at the third round of the NLS Youth Kart Slalom Championship, and not just when Nürburgring mascot “Legend” and Stitch from “Lilo & Stitch” dropped by at lunchtime. The most successful kids were also able to enjoy victories and trophies – for example Jonas Bohrer from MSC Adenau, who drove to his third win of the season in K1. Mick Schmidt from OC Lahnstein triumphed in a class above. David Bötcher from MSC Konz came out on top in K3, which had a strong field of 14 riders, and local hero Florian Rauhe celebrated his third win in a row in K4. Luis Müller-Herrfarth from the MSA of PSV Wengerohr came out on top in the K5. The NLS junior championships are taking a well-deserved summer break. The fourth of five NLS races is scheduled for 16 August.
The next two races in the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie will be on the programme in just two weeks’ time. The ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers have been part of the championship since last year. At the ADAC Nordrhein double-header on 24 and 25 May, two races will be held over a distance of four hours.
