3. Run digital Nürburgring endurance series
20.04.2020
D he two protagonists clashed in the first round. Augstín Canapino, who had taken pole position in the Mahle-Audi R8 LMS, drove closely followed by Philipp Eng in the BS-BMW Z4 GT3 through the courage curve when minimal contact caused the leader to spin.
It struck lightly, bent the rear wing and lost a few positions. But the Argentine touring car star and his driving partner Alex Arana fought their way back, drove the necessary shorter stint first and ended up making three longer sections. 'It was hard work,' said Arana.
Up to second place they still got ahead, but the victory seemed lost. Because that was supposedly firmly in the hands of the BS Competition team, where after Engs Startturn the sim professionals Alexander Voss and Laurin Heinrich took over again. As it turned out, only two of the four tires required since the third run were changed during the refueling stop. And because you did not take the 30-second penalty, it was increased accordingly after crossing the finish line. Instead of winning it was only sixth place.
Mercedes missed the podium
Behind the winners were the Walkenhorst Motorsport team (David Pittard /Scott Michaels /Sam Michaels) and the BMW Bank team (Bruno Spengler /Nils Koch /Kay Kaschube), with which BMW at least achieved two podium places. The Mercedes teams once again scraped past the podium.
Despite BoP adjustments compared to the second run, Fabian Schiller, Raffaele Marciello and Philipp Nölle (Vodafone Team Getspeed) 'only' landed on the - after a BS penalty fourth place. HTP-Winward, whose starting driver Philip Ellis fought a hearty lead duel with Eng at the beginning, landed in fifth place with the other pilots Marvin Dienst and Jack Sedgwick.
VLN In Cup2, Mitchell de Jong and Joshua K Rogers won $ 208 for the VRS Coanda Simsport team.
There was a real star line-up in the Cup2 class, where Joshua K. Rogers (VRS Coanda Simsport) is currently the best iRacing- Pilot of the world as well as with Martin Krönke (Manthey-Racing) a multiple iRacing world champion in the starting turn gave the honor. In the end, the Australian Rogers and his Californian driving partner Mitchell de Jong won the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup class ahead of Krönke /Tommy Ostgaard and the winners from the second race, Martin Ascher /Robert Klotz (Ascher Racing).
Also In the Cup3 class, sim racing was offered at its finest. The lead in the Porsche Cayman GT4 Trophy changed several times before Sindre Setsaas and Samuel Libeert (CoRe SimRacing) were able to prevail. VRS Coanda Simsport (Sage Karam /Joni Takanen) and the RSO team (Manuel Waibel /Nils Carstensen /Patrick Langkau) made the podium full.
In the TCR class, where identical Audi RS 3 LMS were driven Jürgen Frank, Felix Luding and Johannes Maiworm (SimRC) were able to break the almighty slipstream and ultimately win quite clearly. Only in the last lap did the fight for second place decide in favor of CoRe Simracing (Marius Golombeck /Thomas Gibson /Patrick Kubinji), who prevailed just ahead of the Heusinkveld team (Michael Schöttler /Sven Glatzel). The next DNLS run will take place on May 2nd.
