2022 NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round2 Report

【NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round2 ／ Nürburgring】

Krognes / Trogen Pair Set New Fastest Lap Record, They End 2022 Season By Podium Finish After Refueling Mishap

NLS Round 2

Date	4-5 November 2022
Course	Nürburgring (Germany)
Weather	Cloudy
Surface	Dry
Race Time	4Hours (1Lap＝25,378m)

The second round of the 2022 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) took place as the de facto final on the first weekend of November. The event was supposed to be held in early April but needed to be pushed back to a later slot due to an extreme cold wave on the original date.

Walkenhorst Motorsport took part in this round with three BMW M4 GT3s, all of which were fitted with the rubbers provided by Yokohama Tire. The no.34 car driven by Christian Krognes and Sami-Matti Trogen competed in the SP9 Pro class. The trio of Jörg Müller, Mario Von Bohlen, and Anders Buchardt shared the no.35 car to race in the SP9 Pro-Am class. And the team owner, Henry Walkenhorst, drove the no.36 car in the SP9 Am class together with Friedrich Von Bohlen and Alexander Prinz.

The official qualifying session was run in the morning hours of Saturday, November 5th. The track surfaces were transitioning from wet to dry, and the air temperature was at around 6 or 7 degrees centigrade, the track temperatures varying from 5 to 8. To fight with the conditions, the team put the cut-slick tires on the no.34 car sometimes. But their qualifying attempts were hampered by traffic, so they couldn’t show their true ability and had to settle for fifth in the class.

When the four-hour race got underway at noon, the sky was mostly overcast, but there were some patches of blue sky over the circuit. The track’s pavement was almost dry on the racing line; however, the small wet areas were still scattered here and there, so the drivers had to be cautious with the low grip situations. Under such conditions, Krognes, the starting driver of the no.34 car, performed quite well with the soft compound tires.

The race started with an incident at the first corner, where there were some contact and spins, but Krognes stayed away. He immediately set the class’s fastest sector time in Sector 2 and emerged as the second when the field approached Karussell, one of the famous corners in Nordschleife. Pushing hard to catch the race leader, the no.5 Audi, he completed the opening lap 6.723 seconds behind the leader.

Krognes continued to cut the gap down through Lap 2, which became just 0.289 seconds at the end of the lap; therefore, the no.5 and no.34 cars were now tail-to-nose. Then, helped by the strong grip of his soft compound tires, he made an overtaking move at Turn 1 on Lap 3 and became side-by-side with the no.5 car, to no avail.

But he kept putting heavy pressure on the leader, watching for the right time to attack. On the other hand, the no.16 Audi, running in third, was also closing on to Krognes, making the fight for the lead a three-way competition.

The no.34 car returned to the pit after five laps, still running in second. The team fitted the medium compound tires to the car, and it went back to the track with Trogen behind the wheel for their second stint. Two laps later, the no.5 and no.16 Audis made their pit stops, which pushed Trogen into the interim leader. And on Lap 8, he marked the fastest sector time of Sector 1 in his class.

At the end of Lap 13, Trogen visited the pit box for their second stop and handed the no.34 car to Krognes. During the stop, the team’s mechanics removed the wire mesh from the car’s radiator grill in addition to the routine tire change and refueling. They added the wire mesh to avoid the fallen leaves sticking on the grill and causing an overheating problem, which occurred in the previous round. So, you can call it a “seasonal” addition, which made the car’s appearance slightly different from its familiar face. But they thought the car no longer needed it because there were fewer fallen leaves this time.

The calculation by the team’s engineers said the no.34 car had to earn about 30 seconds on the track to win the race. Knowing this, Krognes pushed even harder than he did in his first stint. And he set the fastest lap of the race at the time, 7’54″339, on Lap 16 before improving it to 7’49″578, which eventually broke the existing record of the fastest lap, three laps later.

With one hour to go, Krognes came into the pit for their third routine stop, but they got hit with a problem during the stop. In the NLS rounds, the teams use the fueling equipment installed in each box of the pit garage for refueling, but that for the no.34 car didn’t work correctly at this stop. So, the team had to use other equipment, and the trouble cost them precious time, as it took about four minutes before the car left the pit.

Without a driver change during the stop, Krognes kept going and ran in second at the end of Lap 25, about 35 seconds behind the leader. But, in the aftermath of the problematic stop, he was forced to make an extra pit stop, which meant that he dropped to third. Thus, the no.34 car took the final slot on the podium by ending the race in third.

Nevertheless, it was clear that the speed was there and that they were competitive against opponents. As proof of it, the car set the new fastest lap record of the SP9 Pro class, plus clocking the quickest sector times in all five sectors, to conclude the 2022 season.

Warlkenhorst’s other two cars, no.35 and no.36, also saw the checkered flag and won in their classes. So, all three cars from the team finished the 2022 NLS season’s final race and got on their class podiums, which was quite an achievement.

Engineer’s Voice

Masaaki Miyoshi　[The Yokohama Rubber Co.,LTD. Motorsports Tire Development Dept. No.1 Tire Development Division]

“In Nürburgring, the tires must cover a wide temperature range. Therefore, improving low-temperature operability has been one of the most important targets in our tire development. This time, we had the lowest temperatures in this NLS season since it was unexpectedly warm in the opening round in March. And the weekend air temperature was more than five degrees colder than the season opener. Under such conditions, every driver of Walkenhorst Motorsport showed excellent race pace. And we are so proud of the new fastest lap record set by Christian Krognes during the race.

“The team had run M6 GT3s but switched to M4 GT3s for this 2022 season. Since these two models don’t share the front tire size, we faced the need to develop the tires from scratch, which brought us some difficulties. In this series, we are required to register the tire specifications and are not allowed to change them during the season. So, we had intensive test sessions during the off-season and the findings are reflected in the final products. One of the main objectives was not to sacrifice the low-speed performance while maintaining the performance in the high-speed range.

“As a result of the development work together with the team, the registered tires were a definite improvement in terms of performance. And we could claim three pole positions, including one in the qualifying race for the 24-hour, and four podium finishes. We thank all Walkenhorst Motorsport team members and drivers for these great results.

“It isn’t easy to shine at a race track like Nürburgring. So, we will try to clarify what we need to improve further and keep working on the tire development to help the Yokohama-shoed cars notch the best possible results in the 24-hour race next year. Last but not least, we always thank everybody who has been supporting our activities and ask for your continuous support in the future.”

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NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round2

2022 NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round 2 Report

【NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round2 ／ Nürburgring】

Krognes / Trogen Pair Set New Fastest Lap Record, They End 2022 Season By Podium Finish After Refueling Mishap

NLS Round 2

Engineer’s Voice

Photo Gallery

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