2024 NLS(Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) Round 2 Report

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The second round of the 2024 NLS (Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie) was held on Sunday, April 7th. The 4-hour race was the second part of the season-opening doubleheader.

Yokohama Tire joins forces with Haupt Racing Team in the races at Nürburgring under the name Team ADVAN x HRT this year. The team’s no.6 Mercedes AMG GT3 was shared by the same trio of drivers who won the SP9 Pro-Am class in Round 1 on the previous day. The following are brief personal career histories of the drivers.

Hubert Haupt, born in 1969, is the owner of Haupt Racing Team. He started to compete in karting in 1983 and stepped up to German Touring Car Challenge, which was his first car racing, in 1990. Then he gained more experience in different categories, such as DTM (German Touring Car Championship) or Indy Lights, and scored a lot of victories in the FIA GT Championship, VLN (Nürburgring endurance series), and Blancpain GT series. The 54-year-old gentleman driver is also a successful businessperson.

Dennis Fetzer, the youngest of the trio, learned mechanical engineering at a polytechnic institute. The 22-year-old’s first contact with motorsport was an opportunity to drive a rental kart in 2012. After that, he went up the karting’s ladder quickly and began to compete in some international categories. Fetzer tasted his first proper car racing in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in 2019 and took part in VLN (the former name of NLS) for the first time two years later, driving a BMW M6 GT3 equipped with Yokohama Tire’s products.

Ralf Aron also started his racing career in karting. In his debut year in the sport, 2010, he won a championship title in his home country, Estonia, and moved up to Formula Renault, his first car racing, only four years later. The most remarkable achievement in his junior formulae years was third place in the FIA F3 World Cup in Macau in 2017 when Yokohama Tire was the sole tire supplier of the event. These years, the 26-year-old mainly races with touring cars.

At 8:30 in the morning, the race cars went out to the race track of Nürburgring Nordschleife as the official qualifying session of the 2024 NLS Round 2 began. The race of the first round ended only 16 and a half hours ago since these two rounds were held as a doubleheader on the same weekend. The air temperature at 9:00 a.m., 30 minutes into the session, was 13 degrees centigrade, and the forecast said there was no concern about rain, while the sky was overcast.

Haupt showed his ability to the fullest in the qualifying. At about an hour from the start of the session, he clocked 8’02″896, which was the overall fastest time then. After watching how fast others were, he resumed his qualifying attempt and made a total effort to improve his lap time. As a result, Haupt set 7’57″216, the fastest qualifying time in the SP9 Pro-Am class, and it was good enough to secure the second grid overall, 0.995 seconds shy of the pole position time marked by an SP9 Pro class crew.

The 4-hour race got underway at noon, as with the first round the previous day. With Aron behind the wheel, Team ADVAN x HRT’s no.6 car went through the formation lap. Immediately after the rolling start, he went slightly wide at Turn 1 as he approached the corner from the starting grid on the outside, losing two places. Then, the no.3 Porsche 911 GT3R’s driver tried to squeeze the car’s nose into the inside of Aron, but he fended it off by defending his place at the next corner and kept the position.

While some parts of the track surfaces were a little dusty and slippery, Aron didn’t give the no.3 car, which put continuous pressure on him, even the slightest chance. In the final part of Lap 2, the no.3 Porsche tried to overtake Aron by utilizing slipstream and got ahead about half a car length, but Team ADVAN x HRT driver didn’t lose his cool and managed to retain fourth place. The six cars, including no.6 Mercedes AMG, formed the leading group, and their close battles were getting hotter.

On Lap 4, the no.3 car made a move on Aron again and dove into his inside at a corner without success. Instead, the chasing Porsche driver’s attack backfired as he went wide, allowing the no.27 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO II to get ahead of him.

At the end of Lap 5, Aron’s no.6 Mercedes and the no.3 Porsche, the two cars fighting hard with each other, visited their pits simultaneously, which was a little earlier than the other competitors. Aron set 7’58″760 on his last lap on the stint, and Haupt took over the car.

The leading four cars headed to the pit lane at the same time after completing Lap 7, and the first hour of the race passed when they entered the next lap. On Lap 8, the no.7 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO I came into the pit as the last one to make the first stop, which promoted Haupt to second. The gap between the leader and the no.6 car was around 12 to 13 seconds, while the car in third was just behind him. But the veteran Haupt knew how to drive to defend the position in Nordschleife, so the expectations for the team’s overall podium finish were high.

However, on Lap 12, when an hour and 40 minutes had elapsed from the start, Haupt was forced to slow down due to a mechanical problem. Fortunately, he could bring the car back to the pit, and it resumed racing, with Fetzer behind the wheel, after spending about 13 minutes for troubleshooting.

The unscheduled pit stop meant the no.6 car was a lap down from the overall leader. Still, they had about two hours left to recover. Fetzer devoted tremendous effort to moving up through the field. From the 24th overall at the end of Lap 16, he came up to 21st on the next lap and finally regained the SP9 Pro-Am class leader position on Lap 18 when the no.7 car in the same class visited its pit box.

The no.6 car made its final pit stop on Lap 22, and Fetzer stayed in the cockpit to drive the car for their last stint. While problems hit some of the rivals on their cars or tires, Fetzer’s lap times were consistent, and he eventually received the checkered flag first in the class, keeping away from any trouble on the track.

Thus, Team ADVAN x HRT showed its speed, comparable to the SP9 Pro class competitors, and scored two consecutive wins in the SP9 Pro-Am class on the season-opening weekend. With these great results, the team must be confident about performing well in the Nürburgring 24 Hours Qualifiers next weekend.