Aron, Stolz dominate NLS 7 for Winward and Mercedes

Credit: Luna Maas

Ralf Aron and Luca Stolz have won NLS 7 from pole in dominant fashion in the No.80 Winward Racing Mercedes on Aron's return to racing after a scary accident at Bathurst in February left him unable to race until now. The Nürburgring 24 Hour winning team taste champagne once again on the Nordschliefe.

Second was the No.77 Schubert BMW in the hands of Jens Klingmann, Ugo de Wilde and Tim Tramnitz, while the No.48 Losch Motorsport by Black Falcon Porsche of Patrick Assenheimer, Dylan Periera and Tobias Müller rounded out the podium.

Results of NLS 7 - Top 10 overall

1st No.80 Winward Mercedes

2nd No.77 Schubert BMW

3rd No.48 Losch Porsche (1st in Pro-Am)

4th No.4 Goroyan Porsche (2nd in Pro-Am)

5th No.1 FK Performance BMW

6th No.123 Muhlner Porsche (3rd in Pro-Am)

7th No.786 Renazzo Lamborghini (1st in Am)

8th No.5 Black Falcon Porsche (2nd in Am)

9th No.64 HRT Ford

10th No.992 Manthey Porsche (1st in SP-PRO)

As it happened

At the start, Luca Stolz in the pole-sitting No.80 Team Ravenol Mercedes retained the lead, followed closely by Frank Stippler in the No.64 Haupt Racing Ford. Meanwhile Adam Christodoulou in the No.20 Era Motorsport Mercedes got by the No.23 Gamota Racing BMW of Moritz Kranz.

The biggest winners of the opening lap were undoubtedly the No. 77 Schubert Motorsport BMW of Tim Tramnitz, gaining three places and the No.4 Goroyan Porsche of Nico Menzel that gained two, with the pair of cars in positions five and six by the end of the lap.

The exact opposite were the early laps for the No.8 Juta Racing Audi, with "Selv", having two spins, one at the AMG-Arena on lap two and another at the Hohenrain-Schikane on the next lap, that put the car into stall, with it thankfully being removed from the track in due course.

Another car that faced problems in the opening phase was the No.23 BMW, which entered the pits on lap three, with a fire-extinguishing system issue, that cost them a lap and gave them a black & orange flag. A lap later the Walkenhorst Motorsport No.35 Aston-Martin, driven by Christian Krognes also prematurely entered the pits, with a suspension issue, derailing their race as well.

Leader Stolz pitted -as expected- at the end of lap six, handing the lead to the No.64 Ford of Stippler, which proved temporary, as the Mustang developed an issue, causing Stippler to significantly reduce his speed.

Credit: Luna Maas

This sudden differential was the cause of a collision between him and Christodoulou in the No.20 Mercedes, with the British-Greek driver getting into the lead, but at the cost of some bodywork parts, before pitting at the end of lap seven and handing over the reigns to teammate Jake Hill. The Ford also had some pretty significant damage, losing the Haupt Racing Team (HRT) quite a lot of time.

After the first round of pitstops was completed for all leading cars, the No.80 Mercedes returned to leading the race, now with Ralf Aron behind the wheel, followed up by the No.4 Porsche of Menzel and the No.1 FK Performance BMW of Dan Harper, 17 and 30 seconds from the lead respectively.

A little further back, Tim Tranmitz continued impressing in the No.77 BMW,  getting past Patrick Assenheimer's No.48 Porsche for fourth. The Porsche then battled for some time with the No.25 Dörr Motorsport McLaren, with the latter getting past for fifth.

After the second round of pitstops and as the half-way mark loomed, the No.1 BMW ended up in the race lead, with Pavel Lefterov behind the wheel, as Aron in the No.80 Mercedes was around eight seconds from him in second. The BMW went two laps shorter on their opening stint, propelling them into the lead in the mid-part of the race.

Eventually the Estonian caught the Bulgarian, with the Mercedes regaining the lead after an overtake at the end of lap 18. At the same time the battle for third was brewing, around 20 seconds behind the leading duo, with the No.77 BMW closely followed by the No.4 and the No.48 Porsches. 

20 laps in, the gap had been sufficiently extended by Aron to eight seconds, whilst Jens Klingmann had shaken off the challenge of the two Porsches for third place, having a gap of around six seconds to Alex Fontana’s No.4 car and eight to the No.48 of Tobias Müller.

Just as we crossed over the halfway marker, the No.1 BMW came into the pits and Lefterov gave over to Leyton Fourie. Over the course of the next few laps the rest of the leading group came in for their scheduled service too. 

Stolz re-took to the helm of the No.80 and emerged five seconds in the lead, ahead of Jens Klingmann in the No.77 Schubert BMW. It was a further 10 seconds back then to the No.48 and No.4 Porsches, who were nose to tail. Patrick Assenheimer vs Alex Fontana. 

The No.1 BMW had fallen all the way to fifth, 30 seconds behind the battling Porsches. 

Meanwhile the No.35 Walkenhorst Aston Martin that had an issue earlier spun at Tiergarten, but they were running 13 laps down after their problem kept them in the pits. 

During the stint, Fontana got past Assenheimer for third place, and slowly began to pull away from the other Porsche. 

Credit: Luna Maas

Behind them in Cup2, the No.900 and No.902 were having a fight for the 12th overall, and the lead in class. Benjamin Koslowski in the No.900 was chasing, but got the jump on Ryan Harrison in the No.902 while leaving a Code 60, and took the lead with two hours to go. 

The two swapped places again on the next lap, but Koslowski got the run on the Dottinger-Hohe and managed to re-take the lead before a Code 60 at Tiergarten. 

From there the final two pit stops came and went, and everyone on track managed to keep it consistent and crucially, in between the two white lines.

However on the final lap, the No.786 Lamborghini and the No.5 Porsche were nose to tail fighting for seventh overall, but also the victory in the SP9-Am class.

Stolz and Aron won in the end in the No.80, ahead of the No.77 BMW and the No.48 (Pro-Am winner) and No.4 Porsches. Fifth was the No.1 BMW, with the No.123 Porsche in sixth after a last lap move secured a top five for Lefterov in the BMW. The Lamborghini fended off the Porsche for seventh and Am class victory, with the No.64 Ford and the No.922 Manthey Porsche (SP-PRO) finishing out the top 10.