2022 NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round 6 Report

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The two-month summer break has passed, and the 2022 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) entered the second half of the eight-race series. Since the second round scheduled in April had to be postponed to November because of unexpected snowfall, the second half effectively started with this “sixth” round on the second weekend of September.

The previous round was a six-hour race, but it doubled this time, a 12-hour race. However, it didn’t run a consecutive 12 hours, as the series adopted an uncommon two 6-hour races format. More specifically, there was a 2-hour qualifying session from 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 10th, and the session’s result decided the starting grids.

Then Race 1 started at 2:30 p.m. and was once “stopped” when six hours had passed. The cars running at the time were placed under parc fermé condition, which means they are under the race official’s scrutiny. And at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 11th, Race 2 for the remaining six hours got underway.

Rain clouds hung low over Nürburgring on Saturday. It rained hard well before the qualifying session began, so the track was thoroughly wet. Two Walkenhorst-entered BMW M4 GT3s were ready for the session’s start with wet tires.

The no.34 car competed in the SP9-Pro class with the trio of Christian Krognes, Ben Tuck, and Sami-Matti Trogen. The no.36 car was shared by the foursome of Henry Walkenhorst, Friedrich Von Bohlen, Anders Buchardt, and Jörn Schmidt-Staade.

When Krognes, behind the wheel of no.34 car, went out on the track, the air/track temperatures were relatively low, 14/14 degrees centigrade, according to Yokohama Tire’s gauge. Going through the 25.378km circuit located in the forest of Eifel, he trailed a massive spray of water on his first lap. But the rain gradually eased when he was finishing his second timed lap, so every driver began to improve their lap time.

After three timed laps, Krognes handed over the car to Tuck, who also did three timed laps before changing to Trogen. He came back to the pit after doing as many laps as his teammates did with 20 minutes remaining to the end of the session.

As the rain had already stopped and the lap times were getting better and better, the no.34 car’s best time, 9’27″290, set by Krognes in his first run, was only tenth on the timesheet at the time. So, the team gave the slick tires to the car and sent the team’s first driver out on the track again.

He moved up to sixth on his second timed lap by setting 8’55″098 and then improved it on the next lap to 8’20″719, which secured the second slot in the session. Thus, the no.34 car took the front row grid for the race.

During the intermission after the qualifying, there was lots of entertainment for fans. A parade run of Knight 2000 replica car based on a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am was one of the most popular shows. It was a fictional dream car that played an essential role in the old-time American TV series Knight Rider.

The tension was building up as the cars took their grids for the race to start at 2:30 p.m. But, as if the weather responded to the tension, light rain began to fall. While all cars on the grids had slick tires because the track surfaces were completely dried, the race control declared “Wet Race” at 14:05. So it suddenly looked like anything could happen after the start.

The formation lap went underway at 14:12 as scheduled. With their windscreen wipers working busily, the cars got off their grids and weaved hard to warm up the tires on the lap.

The race began on time. The no.34 car with Krognes at the wheel dropped back to fifth at Turn 2, but he skillfully kept the car under control, even though the conditions were so tricky with many puddles on the track.

Whereas some of his rivals struggled just to keep their cars on the tarmac, Krognes safely completed the first lap and headed to the pit to get the wet tires. Then, with the suitable rubbers, he started to drive at an amazing pace from the ninth in the class. Steadily improving his time lap by lap, he clocked 9’27″055 on Lap 5, which was faster than his qualifying lap on the wet track, and came up to fifth.

On Lap 7, when the race passed its one-hour mark, Krognes made the first scheduled stop, and other cars competing in the SP9-Pro class did the same. Since the rain had stopped already, Walkenhorst Motorsport gave him a fresh set of slick tires, and he returned to the circuit without a driver change. The track surfaces were still pretty wet from place to place, and Nürburgring is one of the most challenging race tracks, even if the conditions are favorable. However, Krognes shone under such difficult conditions after that.

After his out lap, he completed the next lap in 8’35″953 and was running in seventh, more than 20 seconds behind the car no.11. Then he bettered his lap time to 8’33″245 on Lap 10, which was the fastest lap at the time, reducing the gap with no.11 to about ten seconds. And he didn’t stop there. On Lap 12, only two cars in the class, no.34 and the race-leading no.11, went round the track within nine minutes, and Krognes overtook two opponents during the next lap to regain fifth.

The gap between the two cars, no.34 and no.11, was about two minutes and 15 seconds. But Krognes managed to cut it down to one minute and 46 seconds by renewing the fastest lap. Then he reduced it further to one minute and 39 seconds on Lap 15 before returning to the pit to change to Tuck. They still had a long way to go, but expectations for a good result were high.

However, the challenges of the infamous “The Green Hell” weren’t so easy to overcome. The rain returned, and many cars spun or hit each other on the wet track. There was even a car halted sideways and almost blocked the course. The windscreen wipers were busy at work again as all racecars started to trail a long water spray. Under such demanding conditions, Tuck became one of the casualties as he went off the track and crashed into the barriers. And the team had to retire the car due to heavy damage to the transmission.

The no.36 car steadily ran until the end of both Race 1 on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday and became the well-deserved SP9-Am class winner.