I am a little delayed in my race recap but with a baby and traveling with the Skip Barber Racing School my time is tight! So, I finally returned to the Nürburgring a few weeks ago for the fourth round of the NLS season. Once again driving the Sorg Rennsport BMW 330i. We had testing on Friday which I used to re-familiarize myself with the circuit. Nothing compares.
Saturday was race day and qualifying, which they do early in the morning. We all ran a couple of laps for qualifying. Things were smooth but the pace was far off. We also had some contact with one of the GT3 BMW M4s in Adenauer Forest which is a very fast section. We were rear ended but luckily it was mostly cosmetic. It was hard to get a clean lap due to numerous Code-60 flags during my time.
For this four-hour race I was joined by two drivers with laps around the Nordschleife. Florian Krueger is a young upcoming driver, and my second teammate was Bernhard Wagner who has many laps on the Nordschleife including competing in the 24H.
Bernhard took the green flag and ran a very smooth stint. Florian was next and ran strong as well with no issues. Our pace was still quite a bit off from the leaders, but we were playing it safe and turning laps. My stint would be the third and final run to the checkered flag.
I drove trying to conserve fuel most of my stint so was shifting at low RPM and even lifting and coasting a lot. For a driver, this can sometimes help one become faster on a track because it forces you to carry momentum into the corner and not rely on adding power to save time lost. So, you really must work on entry. It’s also sometimes good fun trying different ways to conserve fuel.
My lap times did keep dropping, nothing insane but the fastest in the car and sub-10-minute which was my goal. We ended up P8 in class. We accomplished the goal of simply running to the end with no issues. There’s potential for mayhem every lap here, so finishing is a plus.
I head back to Germany in September to join Sorg Rennsport once again, this time for the inaugural NLS 12 Hour race weekend. This will be a big one, so stay tuned.
Cover Photo by: Len Kutasi / l.k.speedmedia
Photo Gallery by: 1VIER.COM