24h race 2017: A damage at the drivetrain prevents a finish result after a strong starting phase
A weekend with many ups and downs lies behind our team. The courage to join an exotic vehicle and the detailed preparation was not rewarded.
In the qualifying sessions on Thursday and Friday, we just missed closely the step into the top 30 qualifying.
At the start of the 24h race on Saturday, the Eifel spared fans and drivers from the weather caprioles of the past years. The traffic lights turned to green exactly at 3:30 pm. The driver crew Dieter Schmidtmann, Heiko Hammel and Dominik Schwager startet the race from position 37 and fought forward lap by lap. After six hours the Renault R.S. 01 was already on the overall rank 18, closely followed by the HTP Mercedes-AMG GT3 with the starting number 48. With lap times just over 8:30 minutes one was almost on the level of some GT3 factory vehicles. Due to the tough conditions on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, the coupling rod of the stabilizer was broken in the night. The resultant difficult driving behavior cost a few seconds per lap. Despite the handicap, we were still in the top 30 in a promising position for a long time. After 15 hours of racing ended a damage in the area of the drivetrain the race for our Renault R.S. 01 in the early Sunday morning.
Even through we have not seen the chequered flag, we are proud of what we have achieved. Our team converted the R.S. 01 in only 6 month into a solid racing vehicle that can cope with the hard conditions of the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. We would like to thank all supporters, partners and fans who have taken this way with us and believed in us.
