Written by Aaron Carroll
Falken Motorsports have taken a 1-2 finish in NLS 1 with their No.3 and No.4 cars respectively, ahead of another pair of Porsches to seal a top four lockout for the German marque.
Before the race even began, the No.2 Ford Mustang SP9 had a major accident in qualifying, forcing them to pull out of the race due to extensive damage. The Mustangs efforts cut from two cars to one before the green flag fell on 'The Green Hell'.
The racing season at the Nürburgring Nordschleife got under way at 12:15 am local time this morning, with the green flag dropping for NLS 1(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie). The No.8 JUTA Racing Audi SP9 (GT3) led the field away from pole position.
The No.8 Audi, started by Frank Stippler, pulled away quickly from the rest of the field, while the rest of the SP9's behind battled over second, third and fourth. The No.27 Abt Lamborghini driven by DTM champion Mirko Bortolotti, had a good start too, getting up to second about halfway around the first lap.
At the end of the first lap, multiple SP9's came into the pits for a tyre change, due to mixed conditions out on track. The leading No.8 Audi was one of the cars to come to the pit lane, leaving Bortolotti in the lead. Stippler in the Audi had an abnormally long pit stop, dropping towards the back of the SP9 class.
The No.900 Porsche Cup car in the Cup2 class had an off early on, but crucially didn't hit the wall and continued on, only further down the order.
Again on lap two, more cars came into the pits, including the No.27 leading Lamborghini, leaving the No.69 McLaren in the lead. Cars stopped after starting the race on wets, with the track drying as the 107 car field completed laps. Due to these stops for the SP9's, the No.943 Cup2 Porsche sat in third place overall, despite being seconds a lap slower than the lead class.
Strategy started to play out early on, with the second placed No.36 Audi coming in for a stop after four laps, compared to the usual seven or eight lap stint for SP9 cars.
At the start of lap five, the No.69 led, although having not pit yet. Porsche held the following 10 positions, some of whom were GT3 Cup Cars from the Cup2 class, led by Carlos Rivas in the No.948 car. Rivas was also the overall lead of those who had taken their first pitstop already.
The remaining Ford Mustang in SP9 struggled in the hands of David Schumacher, dropping to 23rd place overall by lap six. Just after the one hour mark, the No.14 Mercedes of Maro Engel stopped at Bergwerk with a mechanical failure. The No.70 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 also stopped on the döttinger höhe, both incidents causing localised code 60s.
With the No.4, No.3 and No.8 cars running 1-2-3 after shuffling to the front in that order due to lap one pitstops, all three cars stopped, as the No.27 Lamborghini took the lead, but would also pit on the next lap, to hand over the lead to the No.36 Aston Martin.
There was an incident between the No.7 Lamborghini SP9 and one of the Porsche Cayman GT4s. The Lamborghini going into the wall and the engine steaming as the car lay stricken on the side of the road, ending their race.
With just over two hours remaining, both of the Falken Porsches and the Dinamic GT Porsche battle it out for fifth. The No.4 Falken car winning out from the sister No.3 and the Dinamic No.54 in seventh.
The No.69 McLaren would lead again at the halfway point, but it was difficult to know where any car in SP9 actually stood with multiple pit strategies playing out, different from the usual pit stops every seven or eight laps that is normally seen in the NLS.
The battle between the two Falken Porsches would rage on, the No.3 getting by heading onto the Nordschlife to take the lead after pit stops from all of the cars ahead. The No.50 Audi would come to trouble, bringing out double waved yellow flags and a code 60 in the second half of the lap with 100 minutes remaining.
The two Falken cars then came into the pits, with the No.69 McLaren splitting them as they left the pit lane, the No.17 Mercedes not far behind this trio. The No.911 fan favourite 'Grello' Porsche would take over the lead, still yet to pit.
The No.3 Falken Motorsports pulled away from the battle between the sister car and the No.69 McLaren, before the No.4 car got past the Dörr Motorsport McLaren, followed by the No.17 Mercedes.
The No.911 came into the pits with just under an hour remaining, handing the lead back over to the Falken cars, but would be able to go to the end of the race whereas their competitors had to pit again.
The Cup 2 No.909 had a spin after being hit by the No.948 with just 45 minutes remaining, the No.948 coming out unscathed and into the lead.
The two Falken cars finally pit, the No.4 following the No.3 in with 20 minutes remaining. However since they only needed to fuel for 20 minutes, rather than a full stint, they came out in first and second, with the No.911 chasing in third.
It wouldn't be enough from Thomas Preining in the No.911 however as Falken Motorsports took home a 1-2 finish in the opening round of the NLS season. No.911 would finish third, with Dinamic GT rounding out a Porsche 1-2-3-4. The top five would be completed by the No.98 ROWE Racing BMW, the only M4 GT3 on the entry list.
Elsewhere, the fan favourite 'Youtuber car', of Jimmy Broadbent, Steve Brown (Super GT), Misha Charoudin and Manuel Metzger won in the SP8T class, leading almost the entire race and winning by a margin of 40 seconds.
Race Result
1st No.3 Falken Motorsports, Porsche
2nd No.4 Falken Motorsports, Porsche
3rd No.911 Manthey EMA, Porsche
4th No.54 Dinamic GT, Porsche
5th No.98 ROWE Racing, BMW
6th No.17 GetSpeed, Mercedes
7th No.69 Dörr Motorsport, McLaren (Pro-am)
8th No.27 ABT, Lamborghini
9th No.15 Scherer Sport PHX, Audi
10th No.48 Black Falcon, Porsche (Pro-am)
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