GTronix360° Team mcchip-dkr - Season Review 2017
An emotional motorsport season characterized by many ups and downs, lies behind us.
The decision to compete with an own race car in the VLN and the 24h race, meant for the whole team a tough piece of work, to get the Renault R.S. 01 competitive on the demanding Nürburgring-Nordschleife. Despite considerable development efforts in the domestic workshop, the first VLN races were marked by setbacks. Sometimes the transmission quit the service and sometimes the clutch did not play along.
The first highlight for our team was the 24h qualifying race. Driver's trio Hammel Schmidtmann and Schwager finished the six-hour race event on a respectable 16th overall position. The season highlight, the legendary Nürburgring 24h-race few weeks later, was left with mixed feelings. After a strong initial phase, destroyed a damage at the drive train our race after 15 hours. Nevertheless, we returned to the VLN with a positive feeling. We were able to eliminate many weak points and make some improvements in the field of driving dynamics through strong partners such as KW and H&R. The result was clearly reflected in competitive lap times of the R.S. 01. The first top ten result followed promptly. 7th overall position at VLN race three of the year was another bright spot for the entire crew. VLN race number four, on the other hand, unfortunately came to an early end due to an accident without fault.
After the long summer break supported Felipe Laser the regular drivers Hammel and Schmidtmann and brought a fresh wind of change into our team. He finished his debut on the R.S. 01 despite a flat tire on 10th overall position. At the end of September, we participate at the last scheduled VLN race of the season, which brought the best result of the whole season for our young team.
Already in qualifying on Saturday morning, Felipe Laser was able to set our Renault on the second starting position with a fabulous lap time of 7: 58.833 minutes. This lap was the third fastest time of all cars in the entire VLN season! The ultimate highlight brought the actual race with it. After the four-hour race distance, the first long-awaited podium was achieved. Finishing the season with a 2nd place overall and being the SPX overall winner has made the whole team really proud!
These successes have also left their mark at Renault Sport.
Last weekend, we received a Special Award at the Renault Sport Awards Ceremony in Paris.
We thank all sponsors, partners, helpers and fans who have gone this way with us and supported us.
Tags: VLN, Nürburgring,
