GTC Race in Assen: First overall victory with Mercedes for Carrie Schreiner

On the very fast and fluid track in Assen, in the Netherlands, the fourth event of the GTC Race took place. This time Carrie Schreiner started for her home team of the Nürburgring Endurance Series "Schnitzelalm Racing" in the Mercedes AMG GT3 with the very experienced long-time Mercedes professional Kenneth Heyer.

 

In the qualifying for the one-hour GT60 powered by Pirelli race, the 23-year-old from the Saarland placed her car on grid position 3 and in her second qualifying for the half-hour GT Sprint race even on P2.

 

In the endurance race, Carrie had a lightning start and took the lead already before the first corner. She clearly defended it until the driver change and handed the car over to her teammate after a little more than half an hour. Kenneth Heyer, still in the lead, came out of the pit lane on the track again and only had to fight hard in the initial phase of his stint. After that he left the other cars behind, pulled away and the duo drove home a safe start/finish victory.

 

In the sprint race it was the other way round. This time, the fast racing amazon "overslept" the start and found herself only on the fourth position after the first turn. 

 

After that, a close fight with three cars for P2 developed. Towards the end of the race, Carrie was able to make up one more position and at least secured the podium.

 

So, her overall conclusion of the weekend was very positive: "It is always very nice to be on the top step of the overall podium and now for the first time with Mercedes. On top of that, the first Mercedes victory in the series this year! Although we were a bit lucky in the second half of the Endurance race due to technical problems of our main competitors, my super start was the key to the victory. Kenneth did a flawless job and was a great teammate. In the sprint race, however, my bad start probably has probably cost me an even better position. In Assen you can hardly overtake if your opponent doesn't make a serious mistake. On the straights the gap was always the same, only on the brake I came close. In the GTC 60 I am now in the lead of the GT3 championship. So it will be exciting at the last race in Hockenheim at the end of September! Thanks to my team 'Schnitzelalm Racing', to Ralph Monschauer and Roland Arnold, who made this race possible at short notice."