Season in "green hell" begins – Nürburgring Langstrecken Series (NLS) kicks off this weekend
Sami-Matti Trogen, 18, will start his career in the debut race as a driver of the German Walkenhorst Motorsport this weekend. He'll drive with the powerful GT3 class BMW M6. It's a four-hour race and the team has in total of three drivers. Jörg Müller and Mario von Bohlen will be seen as Trogen's driving companions. The entire series includes nine races, in addition to which the season will be ended with a 24-hour race. Each race is run on the most demanding track in the world, Nordschleife's "Green Hell".
"Frankly, the track is damn great, my favorite track. It’s fast, it has altitude differences and the driving rhythm is different than on any other track, not a basic track at all. The races in the series are intense, and the different levels of cars on the track need to be taken into account, as well as behaviour in traffic jams. At the same time, these shorter races will work as a preparation for the season's high point, the 24-hour race. The long track of the Nordschleife can provide all kinds of weather conditions, part of the track can be dry, and then there can be rain on the other side, need to hope that there won't be any snow. Now it’s freezing here in Germany, but the race weekend should be mild", Trogen says.
Trogen is not a freshman in the "Green Hell", as part of his licence procedure he had three races with the BMW M2 car in the GT4 category last fall, as well as did countless laps with the X-racer simulator. An important part of the preparation was also the Asian Lemans series of four races run in February. However, all of this has only been an exercise for the main goal itself, the NLS series. Trogen will be at the wheel of a powerful V8-powered, and nearly 600-horsepower GT3 class BMW M6. The goal has been set: we are looking for experience and clean competition.
"The best car with which I have ever driven. The BMW is big, has a lot of wings, a great grip, and doesn’t run out of power. It's really good and stable to drive, a car with small features of a formula car. There are usually a lot of events in these first races, so I hope to have a clean race. Let’s try to get the best possible experience and a good start to the series. There may indeed be snow or ice, so need to be careful", Trogen predicts.
The race at the Nürburgring will take place on Saturday 27th March, and you can possibly follow it live – we'll announce the link before the race. Trogen’s social media will also be up-to-date throughout the weekend.
Visit the series website here.
UPCOMING COMPETITIONS 2021
Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) – Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3
27.03. Race 1
17.04. Race 2
01.05. Race 3
26.06. Race 4
10.07. Race 5
11.07. Race 6
11.09. Race 7
25.09. Race 8
09.10. Race 9