2022 NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round 4 Report

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The fourth round of the 2022 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) took place at the renowned German race track. After four weeks’ rest from the 24 hours race, the fight for the series champion resumed with this event. Walkenhorst Motorsport, the prime user of Yokohama Tire, again entered the race meeting with three BMW M4 GT3s.

However, the lineup of drivers was slightly different this time. Car no.34 was driven by the pair of Christian Krognes and Sami-Matti Trogen, while the usual trio, Jörg Müller, Mario Von Bohlen, and Ben Tuck, was behind the wheel of the no.35 car. These two cars compete in the SP9 Pro class. And the team owner, Henry Walkenhorst, shared the no.36 car with Jörg Breuer in the SP9 Am.

It was a single-day event held on June 25th, Saturday, and the 90-minute qualifying began at 8:30 in the morning. Krognes showed brilliant performance in the session, although the unstable weather hampered the preparation work the day before with occasional rain.

Only six SP9 Pro class cars managed to clock the lap times faster than eight minutes in the qualifying, and two out of the top six went around the track in less than seven minutes and 55 seconds. And the fastest was Krognes, who set 7’54″472, beating an Audi R8 by 0.022 seconds to get the pole position. With the car no.35 on the seventh grid and the no.36 on the 29th overall, these qualifying results certainly boosted the Walkenhorst team’s morale for the race.

The four-hour race got underway at noon after just a two-hour interval from the end of the qualifying. According to Yokohama’s gauge, the air/track surface temperatures were 21/28 degrees centigrade. After the formation lap, the whole field rushed into the first corner.

The pole-sitter, Krognes, lagged at the start and dropped to fourth but stayed in the leading group when they completed the opening lap. At the end of Lap 3, he overtook an Audi R8 (Car no.16) to move up to third and started to catch up with another R8 (Car no.5) and a Mercedes AMG GT3 (Car no.6). However, the team opted for calling Krognes into the pit on Lap 6, earlier than the two cars ahead of him, to change to Trogen.

Trogen got ahead of the no.5 Audi and the no.6 Mercedes, as they stopped one lap later. But he allowed the no.16 Audi, which made the stop on the same lap with him, to become the race leader. When the first round of pit stops was over, Torgen still held on to the leader and gradually started pulling away from the others.

Then, the race reached the halfway point, and Trogen made the no.34 car’s second stop to hand it to Krognes. Around this point, the race effectively became the duel between the no.16 Audi and Walkenhorst’s ace car. Therefore, the team made a strategic choice, as they decided not to do the driver change at the car’s third stop, which meant that Krognes would drive for the remaining two stints back-to-back.

Carrying all hope of winning the race, Krognes did an excellent job, especially in the final stint. He followed close on the heels of the no.16 car and put heavy pressure on it, coming side-by-side quite a few times. The fierce battle lasted for the final 40 minutes, and the gap between them was less than a second throughout. The fight fascinated the spectators at the track and the global fans who watched the race through the internet streaming, not to mention the staff at both teams’ garages.

Despite Krognes’ best effort, Lady Luck didn’t smile on Walkenhorst Motorsport’s no.34 car. But the pole position and the second-place finish in this fourth round were promising, and the expectations for a better result in the coming races are only growing.

The no.35 car lost a lot of time in the garage due to a clutch problem, but the crew still managed to finish the race in seventh. And the no.36 won in the SP9 Am class after a steady race execution at a consistent pace.