Markus Palttala, Stefan Landmann and Henrik Still retired with an empty fuel tank on the last lap while running 2nd in class and 7th overall. Palttala had qualified 11th, 2nd in Cup, in the mixed conditions and took the lead on the opening lap. Fight for the lead went on for hours but in the end, the fuel strategy didn’t work out and the Finn had to park the car half way through the final lap.
“It is really frustrating because we were right there in the fight for the top spot. The overall leaders crossed the line just before the flag fell and it surprised us that there was one more lap to go. We knew it was going to be risky but decided to try all or nothing. It came to nothing but good news is I was able to take the lead in the beginning and pull away for a while so we are on the right way. I also had lots of fun because we started in the middle of the faster cars due to the wet qualifying session. The Cup class is so tough that you can’t win without pushing it to the limit. We learned a lot again and have one more chance in 2 weeks to challenge for the win.”
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Markus Palttala, Stefan Landmann and Henrik Still finished 2nd in the Porsche Cup class and 10th overall – the strongest class result of the RTR / Simfy Porsche #110 this season.
“I really enjoyed the opening stint. I was fighting like crazy and moved from 19th to top 10 and from 4th in class to 2nd. It was a good stint full with fair battles. I was catching the class leading Manthey Porsche but eventually lost a bit in traffic and pitted a few seconds behind it. Henrik took over and did a decent stint considering it was his first race in our Porsche. Stefan did a solid job in the end but we were too far away from the leaders and had to settle for 2nd. Anyway, after the disappointment of the last few races, this was a nice reward for the team for their hard work. Two races to go and we really want to win.”
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Markus Palttala, Henri Moser and Nick Catsburg finished 6th in Pro Cup after a brake failure lead to a longer pitstop, which dropped the Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 #4 trio from podium contention. The sister car of Martin, Leinders and Buurman finished 2nd securing the Team Championship title for Marc VDS Racing Team.
“We really were not lucky this year in BES. Again, we were one of the strongest cars out there and were on the way to finish on the podium. However, one of the brake pads failed leading to unscheduled service and we had to settle with 7th overall, 6th in the Pro class. Still, we won the Team Championship and that was our main target this year. In car #4, we did our part for it during the season and we are all very happy with the first title the Marc VDS Racing Team has won during its 5-year existence. Congratulations and thank you to Marc van der Straten and every single member of our team. Thanks also to Henri and Nicky for being awesome teammates and to the amazing car #4 crew for pushing with us.”
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For a second time in a row, the RTR powered by Simfy Porsche #110 was forced to retire due to accident damage before Markus got a chance to jump in. Stefan Landmann crashed out aquaplaning on slicks in difficult conditions resulting in a damaged front water cooler and ending the race of RTR’s Porsche-trio.
“It’s frustrating when you know you have a competitive package but something always goes wrong. It was a lottery with tyre choices because the weather kept changing rapidly. We got it wrong and Stefan was out on slicks when it was poring down with rain. He simply lost it aquaplaning and tapped the wall. The damage was not big but the cooler was leaking, so it was impossible to bring the car back to pits and Stefan had to park it.”
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Markus Palttala won today’s RCN round at the Nürburgring Nordschleife driving Team Schirmer’s BMW M3 V8 GT defeating the opposition when the conditions turned tricky in the end of the 2-hour race.
“I got a last-minute call to race for Schirmer to replace their regular driver who couldn’t make it and I was happy to give it a go. The car they have developed is really nice and we proved it today by beating quite a few quick GT cars. To be honest, though, when it started raining and everyone stayed on slicks, I was just trying to make sure I stayed first in our category and 2nd overall, but it turned out I was so much quicker than the leading Porsche that we got to the lead on the last lap despite them starting it with almost 1 minute advantage.”
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