At its first start on the Nordschleife this season, Team Car Collection Motorsport achieved a podium finish at the first attempt. The four drivers Klaus Koch, Florian Spengler, Johannes Stengel and Alex Fontana put in a strong performance, finishing second in the Pro-Am class in an eventful race and also setting the second-fastest lap of the entire starting field. However, the race was anything but trouble-free.
The Car Collection Motorsport team competed on the Nürburgring Nordschleife for the first time this season. The team entered an Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II in the ROWE 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal race as part of the Nürburgring Endurance Series NLS. Klaus Koch, Florian Spengler, Johannes Stengel and Alex Fontana took turns at the wheel.
In the morning qualifying session, the driver quartet achieved third place in class, from which they also started the six-hour race. Shortly after the start, a rain shower typical of the Eifel region presented the starting field with unexpected challenges. Due to the slippery conditions, countless cars in the top SP9 class crashed at the same time, which is why the race had to be red-flagged.
The Car Collection Audi was also affected during this phase. Florian Spengler slid off the track on the slippery surface and only managed to avoid a serious impact with great skill, allowing him to return to the pits with two defective tyres. There, the mechanics used the interruption to the race to repair the Audi.
After the resumption of the race, which had been shortened to four hours, the four drivers battled in the leading group for a long time. At the end of the first stint, time was lost by over seven minutes when a safety pin of an emergency stop switch came loose and paralysed the Audi. Fortunately, it was possible to find the pin and continue the race.
The drivers were subsequently able to make up some of the lost time with fast laps and faultless stints and ultimately secured second place in the Pro-Am class. The second-fastest lap time of all participants shows just how strong the drivers’ performances were.
Unfortunately, the fact that sporting results quickly become a minor matter became apparent on the Friday before the race. An unfortunate incident occurred in the paddock during the traditional test drives, in which a compressed air cylinder of a participating team exploded and injured several people, some of them seriously. Fortunately, Car Collection Motorsport was not affected. The team expresses its sympathy to all those involved and wishes them a speedy recovery.
Peter Schmidt, Team Principal: ‘First of all, of course, we would like to express our condolences and best wishes for a speedy recovery to everyone involved in this terrible incident. From a sporting point of view, I am very pleased that we were able to finish on the class podium at our comeback on the Nordschleife at the first attempt. In the very difficult conditions, the drivers and the whole team did a very good job, which we can be proud of!’
