NLS 1: Position one and two for Carrie Schreiner on the “Nürburgring Nordschleife” in Germany

On Saturday, 27 June the first round of the Nürburgring Endurance Championship took place under the strictest safety regulations due to the Corona Pandemic. Despite all the restrictions, there were nearly 140 cars in various classes at the start. It was the first car race in Germany in 2020 at all – without spectators of course!

 

After a number of promising test days in her familiar Audi R8 LMS GT3 over the last few weeks, the ADAC GT Masters female pilot Carrie Schreiner proved once again her allround qualities and great stamina.

 

The 21-year-old woman from the Saarland, Germany, had a double start and drove both the front-wheel-driven VW Golf TCR of the "Girls Only Team" and also the rear-wheel-driven Audi R8 GT4 of WS Racing by Giti Tyres. Including early morning qualifying, she completed a total of nearly 30 laps, i.e. over 700 race kilometres in one day!

 

While the class win in the Audi R8 GT4 was actually only a formality due to the lack of competition, the fight for victory of the pure women's team of "Girls Only" in class SP3T was very exciting.

 

After the qualifying, Carrie Schreiner started from position 2, took over the lead after a few laps and steadily extended it. At the driver’s change to her team-mate Celia Martin, the advantage was already about 40 seconds. But unfortunately, she got a time penalty for driving too fast under the yellow flag and the team lost nearly two minutes! 

 

Celia Martin, however, fought her way back in the race and got closer again and due to a perfect pit stop strategy of the team, the final driver Laura Kraihamer got into the last lap leading narrowly again. But due to some unfortunate overtaking manoeuvres she had to give up the lead again and the three fast ladies had to settle for P2.

 

Carrie Schreiner after the race: "That was a big pity. The mistake under "yellow" is on my head. I just didn't see the flag. However, the fact that we only missed the victory by a few seconds proves that we were clearly the most balanced driver combination. In both qualifying and the race, I did the second-fastest lap in our class. For a start it was quite okay again, but at NLS 2 and 3 of the double event on 11th and 12th July I definitely want to drive under 9 minutes again. But the most important thing that I have learnt is that my hard fitness training in the recent months was worth it. I managed to get through the nearly 30 laps almost without any problem!

 

Finally, I would like to give my compliments to the event again. It was perfectly organized and all participants were very disciplined. Nevertheless, I really missed all the fans!"