Motorist Tristan Viidas took first place in the first round of the VLN Championship at the Nürburgring in Germany this weekend in a Mercedes-AMG GT4.
After the race was delayed for three hours due to dense fog and shortened by a third from four hours, Viidas, driving a new team and a new car, also took the stage win in the time trial.
Viidas shared the Mercedes-AMG GT4 with German drivers Tim Scheerbarth and Tobias Müller in the shortened race. Scheerbarth is the 2011 VLN champion and Müller was one of Viidas' main rivals in the BMW M235 class last year, also holding the track record for the BMW M235. Despite this, Viidas set the best lap time of the three drivers in the time trial and put the car in first place in his class on the final lap.
Scheerbarth, with the most experience of the VLN, started the race and managed to defend his first place, handing over the lead to Viidase. The Estonian managed to close the gap even further and handed the car over to Müller. However, due to a faulty fuel gauge, Viidas had to pit one lap earlier than planned, which meant that Müller, who was in the next shift, also had to make an extra pit stop on the last lap to refuel. Despite a gap of nearly half a minute to second place, the chasing Sorg Rennsport car decided to take a risk on reigning GT4 class champion Heiko Eichenberg and BMW Motorsport junior driver Erik Johansson of Sweden and skip the extra stop, overtaking the Scheerbarth-Müller-Viidas trio. However, the risk didn't pay off and the rivals ran out of fuel on the final lap, momentarily relinquishing the lead. With this, Müller regained the lead and brought the car to a winning finish.
"Despite the good result, it was not an easy weekend. My Friday practice session took place in the morning, when the track was still slippery from the overnight rain and humidity. I should have been able to get more riding in during the day, but then the red flags ruined my laps again. So heading into Saturday morning, I was feeling a bit unsure. So I analysed the driving videos hard during the night and... dataand it was a different feeling when we went out for the time trial," Viidas was already more confident.
"Due to the fog, the time trial that was supposed to start on Saturday morning started at noon, and thus the race distance was shorter than usual. However, I found my rhythm with my shift and got used to the much more powerful machine compared to last year. A faulty fuel gauge almost ruined the whole weekend, but luckily for us, the tactics of our rivals also worked."
In addition to leading the SP10 class with his Black Falcon teammates, Viidas shares second place in the VLN Series Junior Trophy. In GT4, Heiko Eichenberg and Erik Johansson took second place in a BMW M4 GT4. Emin Akata, Stefan Beyer and Torsten Kratz, also driving BMWs, were third.
The next race will take place at the Nürburgring on 13 April.
Gunnar Leheste
Dolphinsport
