Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie kicked off in Germany – "It was damn hard"
The Nürburgring Endurance Series, NLS, kicked off in Germany this weekend with a four-hour race. It was the second race of the season as the first had to be canceled due to snowfall. Sami-Matti Trogen, 18, who drives with Walkenhorst Motorsport's BMW M6, was 13th in the overall results. The teammates of Trogen were two Germans Jörg Müller and Mario Von Bohlen.
After the race, Trogen, who did amazing lap times in rehearsals and qualifying, was disappointed with the performance and did not hide his anger.
"It was damn hard, I couldn't find the feeling", Trogen commented briefly.
The phrase "lets sleep overnight" brought light to Trogen. In the next day’s analysis, the race weekend was split into smaller parts and the race weekend looked more positive.
"During the rehearsal, the car was good. Someone had dropped some oil on the track, I drove about 200 km/h and the car was about to get out of my hand. From the mirrors I saw how the Audi behind me also hit the leak, flew to the wall, and went into pieces. The rehearsal was interrupted."
"The car felt slippery also in the qualifying, in which we got the starting position 13. On the warm-up lap I realised that this is going to be difficult. The weather was cold, only a few plus Celsius degrees, and the tire did not warm up at all. I almost span in the warm-up, so when the start took place, my trust was pretty zero. I still drove as hard as I dared, but balancing between full driving and caution was pretty difficult. I had to make sure I didn’t find myself on the wall. We reached the finish line, but after a painful drive."
"When we turn this into a positive, I got a lot of important lessons for the future. Difficult races always teach you more than smooth ones. Speed is not a problem, and we are not staring only at the results, but building a big picture. The time for a ´nice ride´ is yet to come, I have my full belief in that", Trogen described.
Can't afford to put a foot wrong – the next race on May Day
There are in total of nine races in the NLS series. The season-opening race was due two weeks ago, but the cold weather and the surprising snowfall at the Nürburgring caused a cancellation.
The next race will be run on May Day, May 1st. The highlight of the series is a 24-hour race that will be run in June. All races are run on the same track, recognised as the most difficult in the world, "Green Hell".
"These four-hour races are divided into four parts. This time I drove first, Von Bohlen jumped behind the wheel after me, then it was Müller's turn and finally, it was Von Bohlen again. The forest section of the track is really fast, at its best speed goes up to 270 km/h. It’s also narrow and bouncy."
"At the Nürburgring you can't afford to put a foot wrong, otherwise you end up in the wall as there are no safety zones in the forest. A heavy but teaching weekend behind, now it's time to rest a bit before getting back in action", Trogen ends.
Homepage of the series: www.nuerburgring-langstrecken-serie.de
Facebook of Trogen: www.facebook.com/smtrogen
UPCOMING RACES 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