VLN: Yerly starts season with TCR victory
A SHORT RECORD At the first endurance race at the Nürburgring, Frédéric Yerly and his team clinched victory in the TCR class. Two Swiss drivers finished on the podium. Due to fog, the start of qualifying on Saturday morning had to be postponed by four hours to 12.30 pm. The race, which started shortly before 3.30 p.m., then only lasted just under three [...]
Due to fog, the start of qualifying on Saturday morning had to be postponed by four hours to 12.30 pm. The race, which started shortly before 3.30 pm, then lasted just under three hours instead of four.
Perfect strategy
This meant a change of strategy for some teams - including mathilda Racing, whose Cupra TCR only required one pit stop thanks to its large fuel tank. Third driver Heiko Hammel, who had only planned the first three VLN races, left the driving to Frédéric Yerly and Matthias Wasel.
The calculation worked out perfectly, Wasel and Yerly rewarded themselves with a surprising victory in the strongly contested TCR class ahead of the two cars from Hyundai Motorsport, on which they had put constant pressure. While the duo were able to defeat the third-placed Veloster TCR under their own steam, the Hyundai i30 N TCR fell back on the final lap due to a defective power steering system.
In 32nd place overall, Yerly/Wasel were also the best-placed touring car team behind all the GT cars - congratulations!
Fast Jasmin Preisig in the TCR Golf
The same strategy could also have brought victory for the "Girls only - ready to rock the Green Hell!" team with their VW Golf TCR, as the women dominated the male competition in the SP3T class. However, as everyone was supposed to get to drive (as practice for the 24-hour race), Jasmin Preisig and her German colleagues Carrie Schreiner and Ronja Assmann were content with second place. The Swiss driver also set the fastest race lap in this class - bravo!
Rahel Frey also celebrated a second place as driver and coach of Audi customer Bernhard Henzel in an R8 LMS in the SP8 class. Manuel Amweg, brother-in-law of Fred Yerly, brought the Milltek Racing Toyota GT86 home third in SP3. He was less than two minutes down on the Subaru BRZ, which was identical in terms of both victory and construction.
"Half" Swiss at the top of the rankings
Overall victory went to the BMW M6 GT3 of Rowe Racing with Nick Catsburg (NL), DTM driver Marco Wittmann (D) and John Edwards (USA). There were seven lead changes in the 20-lap, 24.385-kilometre race.
Porsche works driver Patrick Pilet, who was competing with a Swiss license for the first time but is considered French (he holds both passports), went into the final lap as the front runner in the 911 GT3 R from Manthey Racing and was ultimately beaten by five and a half seconds.
Raffaele Marciello from Ticino, who is registered as Swiss but has been racing for Italy for years, finished seventh overall with Germans Maxi Götz and Christian Hohenadel in a Mercedes-AMG GT3. The Falken Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 with Alexandre Imperatori from Freiburg, who races under the Chinese flag, finished directly behind.
Simon Trummer and Björn Grossmann (D) took the Ferrari 488 from Octane126, newly developed especially for the Nordschleife, over the distance in 19th position and second in the SPX class (Specials without FIA homologation). They were less than 50 seconds down on the tried and tested SCG003c of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus and only around eight seconds off the fastest lap times of the GT3 Pro cars. An encouraging start.
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