Half time? More like a mountain festival!
After Bathurst, we went to Watkins Glen a good 2 weeks ago. The drivers were certainly relieved that they were given a little more space on the track this time. But that in no way prevented an action-packed evening of racing.
The quali was calm and civilized. Marcus Krüger rocked it this time, with a lot of preparation. He beat the following riders by just under 3 tenths and thus secured pole position and was particularly confident in the interview. Second place went to a surprised Jan Schmid with a lap time of 1:41.754, directly behind him was Andreas Walter, who was obviously hoping for more. Maximilian Dehn had to settle for 16th place this time with the 60kg successful weight. Robin Ricke, who has been able to drive his beloved Mercedes again since the last race, has visibly settled in and can call 13th place his own.
Our new drivers Dietmar Stein and Michael Dommi secured grid positions 33 and 34, while Basti Schrahe started as a guest and secured 30th place in the Ferrari. Also worthy of praise: Michael Mintgen secured 10th place in qualifying.
The start of the race was initially calm as far as the cold forming of the sheet metal parts was concerned, but the battles for position began, as expected, from the first bend. A spin ruined Stefan Wukovatz’s start and he had to line up at the back of the field.
At the front, Andreas Walter, who got off to a very good start, dared to attack Marcus directly in Turn 2. The two touched slightly on the high-speed bend. Andreas had to drop back and lost a few places due to a lack of momentum. The backstraight does the rest and directly invites further battles for position. At the back, Robin Ricke took on one rider after the other and fought his way forward bit by bit.
At the mountain festival, our recently arrived new drivers also showed that they were slowly getting to know the idiosyncrasies of the individual pilots. Thanks to the long straights and the extremely fluid track characteristics, there were tons of duels to watch, while Marcus was bored in P1 and took a start-finish victory.
Early on in the race, Andreas showed that he wanted to get back to the front and apparently misjudged Tobi Elwig in the second heel turn. The two collided there and spun uncontrollably across the track. Tobi was lucky and went well over the run-off area. Andreas Walter, on the other hand, was less fortunate and came to a halt on the racing line. Bas van Grunsven was unable to avoid it and crashed directly into Andreas’ spinning McLaren.
Robin Ricke had fought his way up to P2 by the end and held on to it against Yannick Pleiss. Roland was a little surprised, but the two fought hard and yet fairly. In the end, Yannick couldn’t do anything against the Mercedes with the winning weights. Still very nice to watch! I would say: great debut with the Mercedes, Mr. Ricke! 😊
Further back, the air became thin for Jan Schmid as the race progressed. He was beaten by both Robin and Yannick. The weighty M4 simply couldn’t keep up with the Mercedes and the Porsche.
After more than an hour, Michael Mintgen was in P11. We as spectators were really happy about that and kept our fingers crossed for him, but a small driving mistake in turn 1 ended fatally and destroyed his race as well as his car. He overlooked Stefan Wukovatz as he attempted to return to the track. He could no longer avoid the car and crashed into the McLaren at a good 200 km/h. The McLaren then shed its rear right wheel and came to a halt in the kerb. Stefan’s Bentley tank was still drivable and he was able to drag himself to the pits over a lap. After the repair, he became 27th. Too bad for both of the pilots, because they had certainly imagined it to be very different.
Some of the drivers also celebrated an anniversary by having their vehicles repainted. The VorteX team celebrated its 15th anniversary with the motto “Back to the roots!”, which probably explains the successful white, black and red color combination. Team boss Thomas Batzke must have been delighted with Marcus Krüger’s magnificent start-finish victory on the occasion of the anniversary.
For those who haven’t watched it yet: Here is the stream link again. This time with Markus Smetaczek, who joined Roland out of “self-protection” and, of course, Jutta, who once again provided active support.
Oh, I almost forgot one of them: Maximilian Dehn, the leader of the standings, fought his way up to 4th place during the race! Clean performance! Unfortunately, there was a 20s penalty afterwards for not observing the pit lines. Very annoying. In the end it was P9 for him. Nevertheless, he retains the lead in the standings with a 72-point advantage.
On 03.03. we continue in St. Petersburg. What, you ask again? NO! Of course not. But you’re right, this is the “second St. Petersburg” in this year’s race calendar. Only much warmer and much more American than the excursion to Russia. We look forward to seeing you again!
Categories:
Related Posts
Dear friends of virtual racing, Yesterday was another busy day at Autopolis. My assumption was
From Florida, it’s now off to Japan. Race 9 takes place on the popular Japanese
Third March 2024, 7 p.m.: Tired faces meet online in Teamspeak. It’s time to start