GTW 2023 – WS AFTER RACE 6

This time, 15 minutes was too long and too short for the participants. One lap would have been enough for Ricardo, who set the fastest qualifying time in the rain that had just started to fall. Others certainly wished for a few more minutes thanks to the one or other wall contact. Maximilian Dehn took P2. Yannick Pleiss started the race in P3, posting his best lap in the final seconds of qualifying and relegating Andreas Eismann to 4th place on the grid. Andreas Walter completed the top 5.

Further back at the start, things really got going when Stefan Bäumer, Rene von Dobschütz and Michael Welle opened up a 3-Wide and Marcel Hesen thought to himself “there’s still room for a 4th”. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out as Marcel had imagined and the well-known Newton once again showed his strength. Like a Newton pendulum, the two in the centre were spared while Marcel and Stefan had to go to the pits first thanks to the wall contact.

The most spectacular situation in this race was probably shot by Patrick Leitner. He directly used all 3 axes of the simulation calculation and turned and rolled over on the skyline in all directions and, thanks to the spinning worm, was apparently unable to get to Roland and joined the stream chat.

This accident was preceded by a daring overtaking manoeuvre by Elias Herrmann against Loris Brock. Both had already battled hard in the two previous rounds and finally came into conflict at Quarry Bend. Loris was spun and the following riders, especially Milan Kort and Patrick Leitner, had to brake hard. Unfortunately, Patrick didn’t make it in time and rear-ended Milan. With minor damage, Patrick continued the race and touched the left-hand kerb at Skyline and went off badly. But he was not the only one who used the skyline to fly Markus Smetaczek was also unable to avert a similar accident.

The next annoying event came in round 10. Thomas Batzke or rather Thomas “Patzte (german: mistake)”? on the approach to “The Cutting” and got massive oversteer. This is exactly the situation that no Bathurst driver wants, because at this point there is only one result of oversteering: you are in the narrowest part of the track against the direction of travel. Thomas mastered the situation by reversing to the bulge and was able to turn his car around there. In the end, he dropped back from P7 to P16. The smiling runner-up in this situation was his eternal rival Matthias Weber, who was able to push his Aston past the out-of-control Porsche with a slight contact.

Many endless laps of concentration later, Yannick was finally ready to attack Maximilian. Again, there was a back story and an innocent third. Kai Brandt was cleared by Lothar Keiling in Hell Corner, was able to continue quickly, but ended up directly in front of the two squabblers for 1st place. With a badly damaged vehicle, Kai fought his way up the Mountain Straight until Yannick overtook Maximilian directly behind him on the approach to Quarry Bend. Maximilian spreads his elbows and spoils Yannick’s tour. The three touch each other and fly off. Yannick obviously had the best luck in this situation and was able to finish the race without needing repairs and pull out a considerable lead over Maximilian. Maximilian and Kai had to make a longer repair stop.

Last year’s champion Andreas Hering finally had a good race again and was able to secure 7th place. You’re probably wondering who actually came third? Anyone who knows our drivers also knows who is super fast without attracting attention. It was Michael Marquardt who once again finished in P3 – a great performance. Frank Phlipsen took P4 and is finally back in the top 5, which Daniel Erstling completes.