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【NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round4 ／ Nürburgring】
Round 4 Cut Short Due to Heavy Rain and Pile-up, Team ADVAN×HRT No.9 Car Scores Maiden Overall Win
NLS Round 4
| Date | 3 August 2024 |
|---|---|
| Course | Nürburgring (Germany) |
| Weather | Fine / Rain |
| Surface | Dry / Wet |
| Race Time | 6Hours (1Lap＝24,358m) ※The race was stopped in four hours due to a red flag |
The 2024 NLS (Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) season has passed its halfway point, and the fourth round was held on Saturday, August 3rd, as a 6-hour race. As other rounds were, and will be, 4-hour races, the competitors had to fight for two more hours in this round, which might affect the outcome of the championship battle.
Team ADVAN×HRT sent two Mercedes-AMG GT3s in the SP9 Pro class, the top category in this series, this time. They trusted its no.6 car to the trio of Arjun Maini, Dennis Fetzer, and Jusuf Owega, and its no.9 car to Salman Owega, David Schumacher, and Hubert Haupt.
At 8:00 a.m., about 40% of the sky above the race track was cloudy, and the air temperature was 17 degrees centigrade. Since the start of the qualifying was delayed 30 minutes, the session began at 9:00 a.m., and its duration was reduced to only 30 minutes instead of the usual 60 minutes.
Both of Team ADVAN×HRT cars performed really well in the qualifying. In the early minutes, the no.6 car clocked 8’12”791 and placed its name on the top of the timing monitor. Then, even after other cars started to set better lap times, the no.6 improved its own time to 7’56”743 and remained in the top slot. With the no.9 car in second place, only 0.862 seconds behind, Team ADVAN×HRT established a one-two for a while.
By the end of the session, however, the no.48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 beat the no.6 car, so the two HRT cars dropped to second and third, completing a Mercedes-AMG GT3s’ top 3 lockout. But unfortunately, the no.6 car had an accident during the session after setting the second fastest time, and the team had to withdraw it from the race.
Soon after 11:40, the formation lap for the 6-hour race went underway. It was sad to see the empty second grid that the no.6 car should have sat on, but another Team ADVAN×HRT car was just behind the pole sitter on the grids, watching for a chance to get ahead of it.
The race began at noon. The air temperature rose to 22 degrees then, but everybody worried that the sky was completely overcast, suggesting worsening weather. But few people could foresee how worse it would be then…
Behind the wheel of the no.9 car, Haupt kept his position at the start and went through the first corner. However, he soon dropped back from the leader and gave way to his rivals. It might look like he struggled to keep up with them, but it was his tactical pace control as he thought ahead.
Haupt completed the opening lap in 8’42″798 and was running in eighth. During the race’s first lap, the sky had already opened, whereas the race began on a completely dry track. Expecting that rain would come and get heavier, Haupt intentionally kept a certain distance from the leading cars. And he was right. Heavy rain hit the track as soon as the field entered Lap 2 and instantly wetted the whole track surface.
It created an uproar at Nordschleife since all cars, of course, were running with slick tires for dry surfaces, and Haupt was no exception regarding the tires. But he was running alone, so he could slow down to a safe pace with no rivals closely around him.
Because of the sudden condition change and the multi-car crash, the race control showed the red flag at 12:10 to interrupt the race. Haupt’s good judgment and careful driving brought the no.9 car back to the team’s pit box without being involved in an accident.
Sure enough, there were a lot of mishaps everywhere on the track, and a pile-up involving seven SP9 class cars happened at Hatzenbach. They couldn’t continue, and one more SP9 car had to give up because of a mechanical problem on this lap.
The race control announced at 12:49 that the race would start again at 2:00 p.m. and its duration would be cut short to 4 hours. The no.9 car, with Haupt at the wheel again, took the grid, the pole position this time. The track conditions improved considerably compared to those just two hours earlier.
The no.9 car just ran smoothly to the end of the 4-hour race and scored the overall win, leading the vehicle in second by about 3 minutes and 30 seconds at the finish. It was the first-ever overall victory in NLS for Team ADVAN×HRT. It must also be a memorable podium celebration for the two young drivers, Owega and Schumacher, who shared the car with Haupt in the race.