With a sub-8 hotlap of 7:59.711 in qualifying for the 50. Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy David Pittard won his second Nürburgring pole position. The #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3’s front row start laid the foundation for a hard-fought third place at the finish.

Assigned the start of the race, Pittard speeded to the green flag but was just outdragged by Marek Böckmann in the #2 GetSpeed Performance Mercedes-AMG GT3 while Frank Stippler in the #5 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 soon stuck his nose in for the fight for the lead as well. Pittard didn’t give up and retook the lead laps later going back and forth with Nürburgring 24 Hours winner Stippler.

RACE REPORT | GALLERY | INTERVIEW CHRISTIAN KROGNES | INTERVIEW JODY FANNIN | INTERVIEW MANUEL METZGER

“It was brilliant,” David Pittard said. “That was not an endurance race, that was a full-on ADAC GT Masters sprint race going on there! It was really good because usually in VLN someone gets away and it’s done on strategy and longer-term stuff, but that was really short-term, massive sense close racing, which is really good. It was super fair and super close—hats off to both Frank Stippler and Marek Böchmann, they were super fair in a super close race.

“We pulled off some mega overtakes there! They were some big moves which I’m very pleased and proud of. It shows that I can race against a Nürburgring 24 Hours winner. It’s all good credibility for myself as a driver, coming off the back of a tricky start of the year, and it’s good to get a podium for the team, sponsors and everyone who has been putting a huge amount of effort into this so it’s good to have the Total livery back on the podium.”

Racing alongside Pittard and Christian Krognes was Jody Fannin. Making his debut in the full-pro Walkenhorst BMW, the English earned the praise of his fellow countryman. The trio will stay together for the remainder of the season.

“Jody, even, did a mega stint and he’s relatively inexperienced in the car so jumping into the car with us, it changes the game for him when you’re not relying on your Bronze driver to make the result. He did a fantastic job, which is really good to see.

“Hopefully this is a very potent line-up for the rest of the year which I’m very excited about.”

Black Falcon had the edge on Walkenhorst for VLN4, but Pittard believes a second Nürburgring win this year is a very real possibility.

“Of course we can win! The strategy played out a little bit this time out. The Black Falcon Assenheimer team got the strategy right, but I think P2 was on the cards for us. That would’ve been the maximum we could’ve achieved, I think.

“We’ll look back and see how we can then win the 6 Hours—we have a good record this year in 6-hour races as well as a 100-percent podium rate in the VLN races we’ve finished!”