2023 NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round 2 Report

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Nürburgring is known as one of the most demanding race tracks and, therefore, one of the most preferred ones by many racing drivers. And many automakers and tire manufacturers use the German circuit as their proving ground for development works.

Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) is the endurance race series held at this particular track. For the second round of the series, Walkenhorst Motorsport, partnering with Yokohama Tire, entered two BMW M4 GT3s in the SP9 Pro class, as it did in the season opener.

NLS is a tire competition race series, so several tire manufacturers have factory-backed cars in their own liveries. And from this second round, two Walkenhorst cars were colored in the traditional ADVAN livery.

The NLS season’s second event gathered even more competitors as the 24-hour race in May was approaching, and the SP9 class had as many as 30 cars, a total number of three subclasses, Pro, Pro-Am, and Am. But two ADVAN-liveried M4s were quite eye-catching among them.

The Walkenhorst no.34 car had already shown its speed by claiming the pole position in the season’s opening event. So, heading to their first NLS round with the new red-and-black livery, held on April 1st, Saturday, expectations for better race results were high.

The qualifying session began at 8.30 a.m. when the track surfaces were wet, and the temperatures were low. Behind the wheel of the no.34 car in the session was Jesse Krohn, who is a 32-year-old Finn and belongs to this year’s BMW Motorsport squad. Trailing heavy water spray, he set 9’11″919 on his first proper qualifying attempt and put his name in fourth on the timing screen. Then he improved his time to 9’10″599 on the next run, which was the fastest lap at the time.

During the 90-minute session, as the rain temporarily got heavier but stopped toward the end, the track conditions were getting better. So naturally, most of the drivers significantly improved their qualifying time, which meant Krohn had to fight hard to regain the top slot. But, unfortunately, he hit traffic on each of the later attempts and couldn’t better his time. As a result, the no.34 car qualified in fourth, 4.015 seconds behind the pole sitter. And another ADVAN-liveried BMW from Walkenhorst Motorsport, no.35 car driven by Jens Klingmann, ended the session in 16th.

During the interval from the end of qualifying to the race start, there were no raindrops coming down from the overcast sky. It meant the track surfaces were slowly but steadily drying, so most teams picked the slick tires when they sent the cars out for the starting procedures.

The starting driver of the no.34 car, which was in the second row, was Jakub Giermaziak. Still fresh in our memory was that the Pole drove the same car and took the pole position in the season opener. After a rolling start, he dropped to fifth once on the opening lap but fought hard against his rivals when they were going through the forest of Eifel. Consequently, Giermaziak returned to the pit straight in second after the opening lap while many parts of the track were still damp, and even one of the leading cars lost control and crashed.

On Lap 2, Giermaziak overtook the no.12 Mercedes AMG at Veedol Chicane and became the race leader. After that, he logged the back-to-back fastest laps for four laps; 8’26”798 on Lap 2, 8’15”296 on Lap 3, 8’08”960 on Lap 4, and 8’04”769 on Lap 5, as the racing lines on the track was drying.

The no.35 car started the race with Klingmann behind the wheel. Starting from the 16th grid, he also moved up to ninth and made the car’s first pit stop at the end of Lap 6.

Giermaziak followed the teammate’s path on the next lap when about one hour had passed from the start. And the pit road suddenly became very busy because the leading 12 cars came into the pits on the same lap. Walkenhorst’s team crew refueled the car and replaced the tires, and Giermaziak stayed in the car for a double stint.

The track surfaces were almost dry at the time. The race leader was the no.911 Porsche, which made the first stop two laps earlier than the no.34 car, and the gap between these two was about 14 seconds.

As mentioned above, the track conditions improved in the second stint. However, it meant at the same time that everybody ran faster pace on the surfaces that were partly damp yet. As a result, a few cars spun or went off the track, which led to the yellow flags or the speed limit areas. And such a situation prevented Giermaziak from further improving his pace for a few laps.

The no.34 car came back to the pit for the second stop when it completed Lap 15, while the no.911 Porsche did the same two laps earlier.

When two hours had passed from the start of this 4-hour race, the no.34 car was fighting with two Porsche 911s, the no.911 leading the race and no.3 running in third then, for the top slot. Now at the hands of Krohn, the Walkenhorst’s BMW started to close the gap with the no.911. He was 7.068 seconds behind the Porsche at the end of Lap 18 but reduced it to 3.941 seconds on the next lap. Finally, the Finn passed the no.911 and took the lead on Lap 20, setting the new fastest lap on the lap when less than one hour was left.

But he wasn’t out of the woods yet. Instead of the Porsches, now BMW Junior Team’s no.44 M4 GT3 was coming close to the no.34 car from behind. On Lap 21, they sometimes fought side-by-side, but Krohn eventually managed to defend the lead position. And when he visited the pit for their third and final stop on Lap 24, he increased the gap with the car in second to more than 19 seconds. The team answered his effort with smooth pit work, which only took 1’44” for refueling and tire change.

With the considerable time gap which Krohn built during the third stint, the ADVAN-liveried no.34 car led the race comfortably throughout the remaining laps to the checkered flag. Thus, Walkenhorst’s ace car won its first race with the new livery in style without any trouble or accident.

The no.35 car also finished in 12th overall, thanks to Thomas Neubauer’s solid drive in the second half of the race.