2022 NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round 8 Report

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Only two rounds, including this one, were now left from the eight-race series, the 2022 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS). This race meeting held on October 22nd was nominally the eighth round. Still, the final race of the season will be the coming “second round,” which was scheduled on April 9th but had to be postponed to November due to unexpected freezing weather.

Walkenhorst Motorsport, who selected Yokohama Tire to compete in the series, entered two BMW M4 GT3s again. The no.34 car had a new chassis, as the original one was badly damaged by the crash in the previous round’s qualifying session. The car participated in the SP9 Pro class, and the no.36 car fought in the SP9 Pro-Am class.

Christian Krognes and Jake Dennis drove the no.34 car in this round. Krognes has been the lead driver of the car since the season’s opening race. A 27-year-old Briton, Dennis joined BMW M Works Drivers in 2021. He has a proven track record and, most notably, won the London round of the FIA Formula E championship series from the pole position. This round was his first opportunity to drive a BMW M4 GT3, and he expressed his desire and joy to join the team through his SNS accounts.

As was the case in the last meeting, changing track conditions heavily influenced the course of events. The practice sessions on Friday, October 21st, were hit by rain again, and the track surfaces were partially dried when the 90-minute qualifying session began at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.

In this session, the no.34 car had to settle for 11th in the class and 20th overall. It was probably because the team couldn’t find a good car setup, which should have provided better handling balance to the drivers since they introduced a brand-new chassis that had to be built within a limited time.

The four-hour race got underway at noon. With the air/track temperatures at 14/15 degrees centigrade, the temps were slightly higher than those of the seventh round. Yet, compared to the scenery we saw two weeks ago, the colors of leaves around the track clearly told that autumn had deepened.

The no.34 car started the race with Krognes behind the wheel, but he came back straight to the box at the end of the opening lap, complaining of a strange feeling with the car. However, this unscheduled stopover ended soon as they found out that it was from fallen leaves stuck to the tire treads. So it was just an unexpected influence of the season!

Krognes steadily drove after the stop but had another problem on Lap 7. He reported violent vibration from the car through the radio and knew it came from the left-hand front wheel, as the wheel spokes fractured and the rim with the tire had gone off. But he dealt with the terrible situation calmly and managed to bring the three-wheeled car back to the garage.

The no.34 car was still on the same lap with the leader when Krognes went back to the track after quick repair and tire change, and he just stormed to make up the big gap with their rivals.

The 25km race track is divided into five timing sectors. And Krognes set the fastest sector times in the class every so often on his way to reducing their time deficit. Around the race’s halfway point, on Lap 13, the no.34 car was still ninth in the class, but the gap with the cars ahead was about three minutes, which was further cut short to two minutes two laps later.

With about 90 minutes to go, at the end of Lap 16, Krognes steered to the pit lane to hand the car to Dennis, who drove the car to the end. He improved his position to seventh on Lap 21 and sixth on Lap 23. Making the final pit stop with 18 minutes to go, Dennis did a double stint and safely brought the car until finishing sixth in the SP9 Pro class.

It was a shame that the no.34 car had lost a lot of time in the early stage, but its race pace after that was comparable with the top finishers. So expectations for a much better result in the next round are running high.

Starting the race with Jörg Müller at the wheel, the no.39 car was also involved in an accident shortly after the start, costing them about 20 minutes in the garage. But the trio, Müller, Anders Buchardt, and Dennis Fetzer, executed a strong race and finished first in the SP9 Pro-Am class.