GOTTSACKER: P2 at the Nürburgring 24

A few weeks have passed since our Hyundai USA Team took on the Nürburgring and it has been really hard to wipe the smile off my face since! It was an awesome experience to go through the course, do the NLS races, and take a familiar Hyundai Elantra N TCR around the Nürburgring at full tilt for the qualifying races and the Nürburgring 24.

The reoccurring theme for these trips has been travel issues for me! My flight was cancelled to the N24 and I was rescheduled the next day and I only arrived to the circuit with 15 minutes to spare before the mandatory driver’s meeting.

We really had a race before the race weekend even started! After the meeting, I found out that I was first up on the run plan and suited up for some laps on little sleep.

The pace was good in Q1 and we ended up second in class for that session on a lap that I set on my second lap.

Later in the day on Thursday, we ran at night in Q2 and we really used it for some night practice after Mason set a strong lap to start the session on his second lap. With limited night running prior to the event, it was really important for all of us to get experience in the conditions before the race.

The traffic here is crazy during the day, and the night just makes it even more wild. We set off to the Airbnb for some rest and some quick takeout pizza from our team’s favorite place, Ventisette in Adenau.

Friday’s schedule consisted of a Q3 session after lunch and an autograph session in the evening. Michael Lewis was able to run a rapid lap of 9.00.2 to get us within a few seconds of our European Hyundai counterparts in the No. 830 car. This lap was a huge improvement from our previous laps and just shows that throughout each session we were gaining experience and speed.

Thanks again to Marc Basseng, Manuel Lauck, and Mikel Azcona for all of the advice, tips, and answering all of our questions throughout the weekend!

We had the best (and worst) spot for the N24 Autograph Session – we were next to “Grello.” The Manthey Racing Porsche GT3 is called Grello and it is a bit of a Nurburgring Legend. Think Ferrari at Monza. Everyone is wearing the bring yellow and green of Grello with hats, flags, shirts, etc.

The Grello fans swarmed us trying to get a photo of the legends next to us and we kept having to move further down to give them more space. It was funny and cool at the same time.

Now this leads us to race day, where we were surprised to find that we would be starting on pole position in TCR due to a penalty for our teammates.

As I mentioned previously, our plan was to make laps, stay out of trouble, and see where we end up. I ended up running a single stint in the afternoon, a double stint at night, and a double stint as the sun came up. It was all hard work and went pretty well.

The last stint was fog the entire time, so that added some new complexity that I hadn’t experienced yet. It went relatively trouble free, and most of the race did for Michael, Taylor, and Mason.

The only real trouble we had was finding a quiet place to get some sleep! We did have one disagreement with a GT3 car that ended up in some agricultural work, but no real harm.

P2 was where we ended up and we accomplished our goals – we did all the laps, we didn’t spend any time in the garage for repairs, and we stayed out of trouble. This really speaks to the preparation and level of effort from Hyundai USA, Hyundai Motorsport, Target Competition, and Bryan Herta Autosport.

I’m really grateful to them for such a cool experience and opportunity to compete in a bucket list event for any racing driver.

Thanks to Sportscar365 for the opportunity to share our journey and I hope you all enjoyed a little insight from my side!