Successful race weekend for Scherer Sport by Phoenix: Kuba Giermaziak (31/Poland) and René Rast (35/Bregenz) in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 clinched the first win of the season for the racing team at the fourth round of the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS). Vincent Kolb (26, GER) and Scherer brand ambassador Frank Stippler (47, GER) rounded off the team’s success in the “Green Hell” in third place overall with the sister car.
Promising qualifying
The drivers of the two Audi R8 already showed in the 90-minute qualifying session that they are to be reckoned with at NLS4. With a time of 7m 54.494s, Frank Stippler took the lead in the first few minutes and maintained his position until the final minutes. Only shortly before the end of the session was the Audi with the number 5 relegated to first place. Only 22 thousandths of a second were missing from pole position. Kuba Giermaziak took fourth place on the grid in the #16 Audi. His best time was 7:55.609 minutes.
In the four-hour race, both vehicles were in the leading group the whole time. Giermaziak and Rast completed their first pit stop one lap earlier than the competition and then took the overall lead for the first time on lap nine. After that, they fought a close duel at the front of the field with a BMW. After the last stop, the BMW was just in front, less than a second ahead of Rast. After an exciting duel, the three-time DTM champion finally overtook his rival on lap 23 and regained the lead, which he extended to 4.7 seconds at the finish. “That was a very exciting race,” said race winner Rast, who, like partner Giermaziak, won the NLS for the first time. “After the pit stop, I came out right behind the BMW and knew that I only had seven laps to overtake him. We then had a couple of close fights on the Grand Prix track and on the Döttingerhöhe and even touched slightly, but I got past. The duel was a lot of fun.”
Both cars with lead laps
In the sister car, the 14-time NLS race winner Stippler played out his entire routine at the start and took the lead. Although he had to give it up again on lap two, he regained it only a little later and maintained it until the first pit stops. In the course of the race, the Audi with the number 5 fell back to fourth place, also due to an unfortunate Code 60 phase. At the finish, Stippler and teammate Vincent Kolb were able to celebrate their first podium finish of the season in third place. “We are satisfied with the result,” says Stippler. “In terms of speed, we were among the front runners and were initially in the lead. In the end, third place was a good result and the maximum we could get.”
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The balance of Scherer Sport boss Christian Scherer was correspondingly positive after the race: “We saw a very exciting fourth NLS race up to the end. After the first races of the season were somewhat unfortunate, the knot burst today. Of course we are very happy with the overall places one and three.”
“I’m very satisfied,” said team boss Ernst Moser. “The cars not only made it to the finish line, they also achieved a great result with first and third place overall. The BoP worked really well and made for an exciting race. Kuba is getting better and better at handling our R8 and has laid the foundation for victory. René is a banker and showed, especially in the second stint, that he is one of the absolute top drivers. He made the small difference in the end. Number 5 was also doing well and was in the lead with Frank for a while. Vincent was still a bit weak after suffering from corona and it was not clear whether he would even be able to drive through. But he fought back impressively and was able to match the pace of the leaders again in the second stint.”
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