Early August, just 2 weeks after the 24H of Spa, the German National GT championship came to Spielberg, Austria. Everything went well in the second race for the Lamda Ford, resulting in a magnificent 3rd place! Right from the start of the trainings, Lamda Performance quickly realised it was going to be a tough weekend. There were a few spokes in the wheels during the trainings and an immediate lack of speed was the reason for the less than spectacular times. During the qualifications, Jesse Krohn ended in 18th position. Being able to finish in 12th position in Q2 ultimately demonstrated the improvements the Ford had made.
“This is a real Porsche race track; here immense power & aerodynamics are extremely important. We can’t live up to our promise with our Ford, but we will do whatever it takes to achieve a better result during the races,” so commented Nico after the qualification. The first race didn’t go too bad for the team. Verdonck was off to a good start and his teammate Krohn was able to finish in 10th position after a good pit stop and scored one point. The second race was really successful. Nico Verdonck explains: “I was off to a good start in 12th position. Halfway around the track we had already reached 8th position and at exactly the right time the team decided to call me in and conducted a phenomenal pit stop! Jesse drove a strong sting and we eventually ended in a magnificent third position!”
“Lausitz, A weekend to quickly forget”
2 weeks after the trip to Austria, Nico prepared for a weekend at the Lausitzring, race 6 at the ADAC GT Masters. Lambda appeared to be ready to compete for a place on stage again. However, Lady Fortune had other plans…and the weekend turned out to be one without any points at all.
Everything went wrong during the qualifications: “Jesse was involved in a severe collision and the car took a hammering. The damage was so severe that they had to skip the second qualification round, and therefore the second race had to be started in last place. The time achieved during the first race would have entitled them to start in 15th position. The first race went pretty well. Jesse was off to a good start and after a quick stop I was able to take over. We ultimately finished in 11th place, just 14 seconds behind the winner.”
The second race was over before it had good and well started. Nico was off to an incredibly good start and leaped from 36th to 23rd position within just a few bends. That’s when the crash in front of him took place and he was unable to avoid the victims and had no other choice but to surrender.
“A spin happened right in front of me. There was no avoiding it. I hit the car in front of me and wound up in the gravel. The race was over and so was the weekend.”, so spoke a disappointed Nico.
“More to come!”
Last Thursay Nico tested Boutsen-Gionion’s #5 McLaren, after the car was totally repaired following the incident during the 24H at Spa. Equally important was the news that Nico will be having 2 International top pilots to accompany him during the last 2 BES races. “Indeed, my teammates will be none other than the winner of the 24H of Le Mans winner, Seiji Ara and the American Le Mans series champion Marino Franchitti! It is absolutely great to end the season with top dogs like this, with everyone really motivated to do whatever it takes.”
Source : Nico Verdonck