GTC 60 in Hockenheim: Pole position and championship title for Carrie Schreiner despite crash

The fifth and final round of the GTC 60 series in Hockenheim was a "rollercoaster" of emotions for the young woman from the Saarland, who had just turned 24.

This time Carrie started with DTM driver David Schumacher in the Space Drive Mercedes AMG GT3 from Paravan around Roland Arnold, the inventor of the revolutionary "Steer by Wire" technology.

On Friday, the two had a perfect start: David was the fastest in the free practice sessions and Carrie took the pole position in qualifying.

On Sunday then, shortly before the 60-minute race, the disaster took its course: it had started to rain slightly, and the team had played poker with the choice of tyres. Starting driver Carrie Schreiner was driving with slicks and the rain became more and more heavier. And then things got even worse: after the first corner, the fast race driver was pushed off the track by an opponent and ended up in the tyre piles. The driver directly behind her, who has been second in the championship until today, had to steer clear of the crash and was then involved in an accident himself, hit hard and was unable to continue.

Carrie, on the other hand, managed to free herself from the tyre piles and dragged herself back to the pits in the Safty Car phase. Damages to the bodywork were provisionally repaired and taped and the race could continue. This of course meant that a lot of time was lost, and fast lap times were out of question with the heavily damaged car. But Carrie and David reached the finish line with three laps behind, and they were still able to pick up a few points for the championship, so that the title was safe for Carrie due to the relatively large lead from the races before.

After the race, the new champion said: "I was rather disappointed at first. On Friday we were the fastest car in the field and obviously wanted to win the race. But the weather change and the colleague, who pushed me aside with a violent action, threw a spanner in our plans. But we kept fighting and somehow made it to the finish.

In the evening, at the award ceremony, the joy prevailed, winning a championship is always a great feeling! And it was not an easy one, there were a lot of good drivers in the field. Besides, I was driving 3 different cars and had 4 different teammates in 5 races. That didn't make it any easier!

Finally, this was already the sixth championship I have won, three in kart and now three in GT sport. There are three races left in October, two NLS on the Nürburgring Nordschleife and the Porsche Sportscup Endurance Final in Hockenheim, where it is also about the championship for me."