At its home race in Hockenheim as part of the International GT Open Championship, the Car Collection Motorsport team achieved its first podium result in this racing series with third place overall for car number 15. The team’s two other Porsches also scored valuable points, even though the race weekend was characterized by a rollercoaster of emotions.
After the successful debut in the GT Open Championship at the season opener in Portimao, Team Car Collection traveled the short distance from the headquarters in Walluf to the home race in Hockenheim highly motivated. As in Portimao, three Porsche 911 GT3 Rs were fielded there. The only difference to the season opener was the fact that Tijmen van der Helm, one of the two drivers of starting number 7, was unable to attend due to other commitments, meaning that team colleague Bashar Mardini had the challenging task of completing all the sessions single-handedly. The Canadian did a great job and achieved a top result in the first race with sixth place in the PRO-AM class. In the second race, he only just missed out on the points in tenth place.
In the same class, the American “Hash” and his experienced mentor Alex Fontana started the two one-hour sprint races in the number 12 Porsche. After the Swiss driver Fontana was able to hand the car over to his partner in the class lead in the first race thanks to a top performance, “Hash” had bad luck afterwards and was spun around in a duel. This loss of time meant that the #12 was out of contention for the podium and points. In the second race, “Hash” showed a very good performance and improved significantly. He handed over the Porsche in 16th position to Fontana, who drove up to ninth place and missed out on a point by a hair’s breadth.
Further ahead, the two Pro drivers Gustav Bergström and Nico Menzel were battling for the podium in the number 15 car. They finished fourth on Saturday, but were unfortunately relegated to ninth place due to a time penalty. On Sunday, the two drivers in the PRO classification started from ninth place and were able to work their way through the field with a strong race pace. In the end, Gustav Bergström and Nico Menzel secured the first podium finish for Car Collection in the International GT Open Championship with third place overall. With these valuable points, both are now in fifth place in the overall standings.
Peter Schmidt, Team Principal: “To finish on the podium here in Hockenheim at our home race is obviously great. We had a few setbacks over the weekend, but the whole team dealt with them superbly and fought their way back. We never gave up and that makes me very proud of the whole team! Everything is still possible for Gustav and Nico in the overall standings and we’re still going full throttle.”
