GetSpeed Performance scored the team’s first-ever VLN win after Fabian Schiller and Dominik Baumann beat both the weather and the remainder of the field to take the honours in VLN 7, the 59th ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen in their #2 GetSpeed AMG GT3.

Second place went to Tim Scheerbarth, VLN Champion of 2011, along with Lance David Arnold and Edoardo Mortara on his first appearance in the Mann Filter Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The podium was completed by Nicky Catsburg, David Pittard and Jody Fannin in the BMW M6 GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport.

Even in qualifying, GetSpeed set the tone. Behind double starter Schiller, who took the pole position in the sister #23 car, Baumann placed the #2 Mercedes-AMG GT3 second on the grid.

In the early stages of the four-hour race, Baumann took over the lead from Schiller on lap six.

On lap eight, Baumann ceded top spot for a lap during the pit stop cycle. While other teams switched to slicks on a drying track, GetSpeed relied on intermediates, regained the lead and did not relinquish it to the finish.

“Everything was just right today,” said Schiller about his first VLN victory. “I will remember this moment for a long time. The conditions were again extremely difficult today. We have improved a lot as a team since the beginning of the season. It is not about the big picture, but rather about small details.

With his comeback in a GT3 race car – the last time he drove one was an SLS GT3 back in 2015, second-placed Scheerbarth was more than satisfied. “Just awesome, I was able to keep up with the times at the top, the car was awesome. I would not say no if I got another chance to race GT3.”

Besides the HTP-Mercedes, Scheerbarth also contested the race in the SP10 AMG GT4 of Black Falcon Team Identica and the class victory was within reach, the car taking the lead on the final lap.

In the final metres, however, team-mate Tobias Müller had to lift slight;y with traffic through Tiergarten and was out-dragged to the line by the BMW M4 GT4 of Team AVIA Sorg Racing with Heiko Eichenberg and Erik Johansson by just 0.019 seconds.

In the early stages of the 4-hour race, Jody Fannin was flying in the Walkenhorst-BMW. The team changed to slicks and, at first, the decision seemed to be the right one.

The Brit continued to make up ground and headed for the top. However, when the rain began again, he fell back:

“Especially on a wet track, I had a lot of faith in the car. From lap to lap I analyzed exactly how the track conditions changed. So I could push. Then we thought that it would dry off and unfortunately, we got lost with slicks. But we can still be very happy with third place. ”

Behind the fourth-placed Falken-BMW with Peter Dumbreck and Stef Dusseldorp, Vincent Kolb and Steve Jans took fifth place in the Audi R8 LMS of Phoenix Racing as the fastest Pro-Am team. “That was a good race for us,” said Jans.

In SP8T the father/son combo of Martin and Alex Brundle, racing together for the first time since Le Mans in 2012, looked set to take a class win in the #156 Aston Martin Performance Centre-run Vantage GT4 until the car suffered a mid-race puncture.

Brundle Jr got the car back to the pits but the incident lost the pair a bundle of time, they’d come nome second in class to the #152 Black Falcon Team KNUFFI AMG GT4

The victory in the Cayman GT4 Trophy by Manthey-Racing went to Moritz Kranz, Thorsten Jung and Nico Menzel for Team Mühlner Motorsport SPRL. The fastest TCR vehicle, the Cupra TCR from Mathilda Racing, was driven by Matthias Wasel, Frederic Yerly and Roland Schmidt.

The battle for the VLN title remains exciting. Yannick Fübrich and David Griessner defended their championship lead with their fifth class victory in the BMW M240i Racing Cup class. The double lead for Pixum Team Adrenalin Motorsport is completed by Norbert Fischer, Oskar Sandberg and Daniel Zils, who have achieved six class wins in class V5.

On average though the V5 class leaders result still sit behind those of the BMW Cup class leaders, so it’s them that currently lead the overall standings.

VLN 8, The 51st ADAC Barbarossapreis of MSC Sinzig will take place on 12 October over the usual distance of four hours.

RACE RESULT >>