VLN: Double victory for the Swiss by choice

METZGER KNAPP BEFORE ELLIS In the fourth VLN race at the Nürburgring, Swiss-born Germans Manuel Metzer and Philip Ellis settled the victory among themselves in their Mercedes GT3s in the final sprint. After three TCR class wins, Frédéric Yerly's race ended with an accident. One is a German, the other a British-German citizen. Both live and work [...]

Editorial - July 17, 2019

Chasing victory at the fourth VLN round: Philip Ellis ahead of Manuel Metzger. The driver from Zug also turned the second-fastest lap of all participants.

One is a German, the other a British-German citizen. Both live and work in Switzerland, Manuel Metzger (33) from Frauenfeld as an instructor, coach and race driver, as does Philip Ellis (26) from Baar. While for Metzger, as 2011 VLN champion, 2016 24-hour overall winner and now five-time VLN race winner, the Nordschleife is more or less his third home (the first is Bad Säckingen near the border), it is comparatively new territory for Ellis, who entered the ADAC GT Masters after winning the 2017 Audi Sport TT Cup. Both also drive with a Swiss license and met each other directly for the first time at the fourth VLN round.

Routine versus risk
In the closing stages of the 50th Adenauer Trophy, they battled it out for overall victory, with the decision practically coming down to the last few meters in favor of the duo Patrick Assenheimer/Manuel Metzger in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 from Black Falcon. Marek Böckmann/Philip Ellis with the same model from GetSpeed Performance lost out by just under two seconds.

The older and more experienced driver had to use all his Nordschleife experience to keep his younger opponent, who spoke perfect Swiss German, at bay until the race was over after three and a half hours.

Manuel Metzger: "Patrick did a very good double stint in the early stages. I then had a tough but always fair duel with Philip in the closing stages. I concentrated on what I do best: staying safe. Philip risked a bit more from my point of view, but in the end I had the edge."

Two Swiss by choice on the overall winners' podium: Philip Ellis (left) with his partner Marek Böckmann and the tall Manuel Metzger with Patrick Assenheimer.

Happy also about the second place
Nevertheless, the so narrowly beaten was satisfied.

Philip Ellis: "It was a mega-fight at the end. Even though there were minor touches, it was very fair and respectful. In the end I wasn't able to keep up, although I tried everything. Nevertheless, second place is a sensational result for me and the whole team. You have to remember that GetSpeed switched to Mercedes-AMG this year and is only contesting its second season in the GT3 class."

Metzger also took second place in the SP7 class as a double starter in a Porsche 911 GT3 MR from Black Falcon, while Ellis received a trophy for second place overall as well as second place in the top SP9 Pro class.

Fred Yerly accident
In contrast to the first three rounds of 2019, nothing came of the class victory of a "real" Swiss. After three wins in a row, the VW Golf GTI TCR of Matthias Wasel and Frédéric Yerly crashed.

After a perfect pit stop and a fast first lap after the driver change, the Swiss had gained a 45-second lead over his direct pursuer. The gap to the leading VW works driver Benny Leuchter was only 50 seconds. On the 14th lap, Yerly crashed heavily in the Hatzenbach area. On a cooling water track he was only a passenger, he explained.

They formed a team for the first time: Jasmin Preisig, who is celebrating her 27th birthday today (congratulations), and the young German Loris Prattes, who was still driving for TOPCAR sport in the ADAC GT Masters in 2018.

Good debut of Jasmin Preisig in the new team
Second place in the TCR class thus went to Jasmin Preisig and Nordschleife newcomer Loris Prattes, driving together for the first time at Max Kruse Racing on the sister car of the winners Leuchter/Gülden on VW Golf.

Jasmin Preisig: "I am totally happy with the result! The fact that we got both cars to the finish in P1 and P2 is super. Loris did a great job right from the start and I was able to set a new best time on the Nordschleife, which I would like to lower even further in the future. I immediately felt at home in the team. Now we're hot for the next races!"

Instead of the girls-only team, the Volkswagen Switzerland brand ambassador drove for the first time in a Golf from Max Kruse Racing, with which she set a personal best lap time of 8'55.

In third place, Roger Vögeli and his two German teammates on the Opel Astra TCR from Lubner Motorsport also finished on the same lap as the class winners.

Mettler helps the next generation
Two purely Swiss trios were formed by Yannick Mettler/Ranko Mijatovic/Gustavo Xavier in the Cup5 class and Edy Kamm/Marc Roth/Daniel Nyffeler in H2. With the help of Mettler, who coached them to prepare for the Nordschleife, the two rookies Mijatovic and Xavier (one of the three Young Drivers of 2017) brought the BMW M240i Racing Cup to the finish line in a good seventh place in the 17-car unit class. They even moved up to a Cup position after the sixth-place finisher was disqualified. In seventh place with an Audi A3 among 14 competitors, Roth, Kamm and Nyffeler also still classified quite well.