The "Green hell" lives up to its name!!
The DMV 4-stunden rennen, the second race of the VLN-championship, run on last Saturday was again a real thriller. There wasn’t a lot of time to try out the Porsche 997 on friday, as the all known “Nurburgring weather” was as unpredictable as always. There was so much water on the track, also known as the “Green Hell”, that it was definitely living up to its nickname! Aquaplaning was found on the major part of the track and so there was just too much risk of damaging the car. It looked like that the weather was not going to improve for Saturday and so Nick de Bruijn and his team colleagues Jochen Herbst and Michael Schratz knew it was going to be a hard one.
Even though the race is run over four hours which usually gives a more easy qualifying, it became a real rush. The track was drying and the times were dropping quickly. Nick and Michael didn’t join in the fest as they run their obligated laps and handed over the steering Wheel to Jochen. He had bad luck as he crossed the finish line with not enough time to run an extra lap and so p30 out of a 182 cars was all that was possible. It was just a matter of seconds, while Jochen is very quick in the tricky conditions. Nick told; “For me it was important to get to know the car for the race and I used to obligated laps for this. That’s why we have chosen to let Jochen run the car in the qualifying, as he knows how to put down a good lap”.
Before the start of the race the track dried up and so everyone could start on slicks. Nick was picked to start the race; “I didn’t know what to expect as the 997 is totally different from the 996 which I ran before. The team orders were simple and clear; push hard and go for it!” told by de Bruijn. At the start Nick knew to quickly gain a few positions and was able to put down good sector times. After a lap and an half the weather started to join in the game. Rain drops fell and everyone had to slowdown. The next half lap was run in full wet conditions with slicks, very exciting and Nick moved up some more positions. When entering the pits the team was ready and managed to make a perfect pit stop putting the car further up the order. Nick managed to do a great job and held tight to one of the quickest cars of the field, though a lap before his obligated stop a tire went down. “It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done, a powerful Porsche running on three tires for 28km! I was going sideways down the straights but managed to get the car down the pits in one piece without losing much time” according to Nick.
After the driver change they found themselves at a stunning p15! Michael was behind the wheel now, but a wrong tire choice dropped him back a minute a lap. The tires were really giving him a hard time and everyone including himself was relieved to see that he with kept the car going with great car control. Jochen was allowed to finish off as the track was drying again and got the car back up to p32, an excellent performance of him in tricky conditions. If the wrong tire choice would not have been made, a top-ten result would have been possible. This also according to Nick; “It was too bad we made a wrong choice in the second stint, but we have definitely shown our speed”. Also Michael agreed; “We are very close to the top of the field and should be satisfied. Nick has done an amazing job in the rain, it is fantastic how quickly he adapts to the conditions and is a able to combine this with raw speed! The result is very promising for the following races!!”
| 05 Oct | Nice result in the cold cold Eiffel!! |
| 31 Aug | Nice result, breaks in half.! |
| 22 Jul | Real Eiffel Conditions!! |
| 30 Jun | Short, but strong weekend!!! |
| 15 Jun | FINALLY TOP-10 |
| 05 Jun | New Team!!.. |
| 27 May | Solid Performance!! |
| 05 May | Bad Luck!! |
| 08 Apr | Nick de Bruijn has an blasting debut at the Nürburgring with Porsche |
