GT: Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R dominates during 24H Eifel qualifying race

An evening run on the Nordschleife at sunset is the best thing to experience in the Eifel.

Text: Willem J. Staat
Photo: VLN./NLS/ROWE/Porsche/Falken

Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R dominates during 24H Qualifying Race in Eifel
Two NLS/VLN tournaments that also served as qualifiers. Beautiful spring weather once again drew thousands of people to the historic Nordschleife this weekend. Earlier, the Falken Motorsports team took two wins during the first race, but the joy was short-lived as the combination of Julien Andlauer/Klaus Bachler was given a time penalty of no less than 32 seconds for ignoring the yellow flags and was reduced to five. place. This meant that the Grello EMA Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R of the Ayhancan Güven/Thomas Preining combination was placed in second place, while the Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMS Evo II of the Frank Stippler/Ricardo Feller/Christopher Mies combination still finished in P3 on the podium.

Falken Porsches were big this weekend as well as last week. Three wins in one week for Falken Motorsports.

Tim Heinemann: “A day that I will not forget for a long time. It was not only my first win on the legendary Nordschleife but also my first in GT3. It was also a good match for the Falken Motorsports Team who will now advance to the 24H. DTM Champion Thomas Preining: “This was a great race and of course it’s always fun when an exciting race takes place on the Nordschleife. It’s not only good for me as a driver but also for the fans.

And Manthey Grello was also on stage. This promises something.

Scherer Sport Team Manager Axel Randolph: “We were in front and we drove a good race, but in terms of speed the Porsches were too fast.” And during the second race this weekend, the ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 also performed well. The combination of Maxime Martin, Marco Wittmann and Raffaele Marciello finished in 1.793 seconds. behind the second. Raffaele Marciello: “We are very happy with our podium today. Our speed was just good and we had a good strategy. The main goal was to prepare as well as possible for the 24H. Because this is the only thing that matters here. You can never prepare 100 percent for such a special match, but I think we are in a good position.”

At ROWE Racing they admitted that they were still a little short on Porsches.

Marco Wittmann: “The Nordschleife is always something very special for every driver. But as long as you are not at the top, there are always things that can be improved. But between qualifying and the race we made a big step today and we are confident that we can make up for the small gaps we get from Porsche. We wanted to win but in the end it wasn’t enough”

Ayhancan Güven also sees room for improvement. Believe: “Today was my best race with Grello on the Nordschleife. And I am very pleased that my team-mates ensure a good arrangement so that I can fully focus on driving. Four races and four podiums. I think we can look forward to the match with confidence.

A great start to a Saturday evening.

Before today’s race, Klaus Bachler took pole for the second race this weekend with a time of 8.09.219. In the first round he fought a good duel with Dennis Olsen in the Herberth Porsche 911 GT3 R. Ultimately, Olsen finished in twelfth place with Robert Renauer and Vincent Kolb. The second Falken Porsche GT3 R GT3 car, which was built this weekend by Klaus Bachler, Alessio Piccariello and Sven Müller, was forced to retire after a collision with two laps to go. The Scherer Sport PHX Audi R8 LMGT3 EVO II duo battled it out in the lead for a long time on Sunday. The Frederic Vervisch/Christopher Haase/Dennis Marshall combination finished fifth behind the two ROWE BMWs. The sister car of the Frank Stippler/Christopher Mies/Ricardo Feller combination left the track after 24 laps and was forced to retire permanently. The Top 10 was completed by Gen2K BMW, AMG Bilstein GT3 Mercedes GT3, ABT Red Bull Lamborghini and two AMG Mercedes GetSpeed​​​​​​

It’s great that James Glickenhaus and his crew are back at the Nordschleife.