Aron: “Universe Pays You Back” in Second Win Since Comeback

Ralf Aron said “maybe sometimes the universe pays you back in other ways” after he maintained his unbeaten streak upon returning to racing from injury by winning the European Le Mans Series’ LMGT3 class at Silverstone.

The 28-year-old Estonian suffered two fractures to his back in a crash in the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour in February that resulted in him spending five months on the sidelines.

Aron made a triumphant return to action in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie in July when he won the NLS7 contest in a Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo alongside Luca Stolz.

But the second outing of his comeback did not occur until last weekend, when he made his ELMS debut as part of the Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG squad, taking the place of Maxime Martin who was contesting the Suzuka 1000km.

Amid tricky weather conditions and a race-long battle with the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, Aron was able to triumph alongside Abdulla Al Kheilaifi and Julian Hanses to score Mercedes-AMG’s first ELMS victory, an achievement that Aron said was “surreal.”

The result also moved Al Khelaifi and Hanses into the LMGT3 championship lead ahead of next month’s Portimao finale, three points clear of the TF trio of Charlie Eastwood, Blake McDonald and Alec Udell.

When asked about what the win means to him, Aron told Sportscar365: “I don’t know what it means — all I know is I will try my best to keep this streak going.”

Aron described the ELMS as ‘feeling like home’ but explained that finding seats in which to continue his racing comeback has been difficult with many teams having long-established plans in place.

“Halfway through the season to come back into the racing scene is never easy,” he said.

“I’m looking for opportunities together with AMG to race as much as possible but, at the same time, have quality racing.

“I think one of my main projects right now was to come and support Team Qatar and Iron Lynx in their fight for the championship but definitely also keep one eye on next year and try to put a really good program together for next year.

“To be honest I’m glad to deliver these results for AMG as well, who’ve put a lot of trust in me and I’m just happy to deliver this for them and show that trust pays off.”

Alongside negotiating the rain that arrived mid-race, Aron also had to contend with “radio issues” but was able to call upon his time as team manager of the Prema single-seater squad to help.

“Luckily there’s quite a bit of pit wall knowledge as well, so I stayed calm and made the right calls,” he added.

“It was a hectic race, we were leading the race at some points, we were P-I-don’t know-where at some points, and then to come away with the win is really, really cool.”

Aron ensured the Mercedes-AMG was firmly in victory contention when Hanses took over for the final stint, but the German had to pass the Kessel Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Mathys Jaubert that had pitted earlier and fend off a charging Eastwood from behind.

Hanses paid tribute to Aron’s role in helping the crew raise their game during the Silverstone weekend.

“The experience Ralf brought us with Mercedes and his speed and setup knowledge helped us so much to get more comfortable in the car and to have a lot of trust in the car at the end,” said Hanses in the post-event press conference.

He added he relished the late-race battle with Eastwood, which featured what Hanses described as “hard, but fair racing” as the pair spent half a lap side by side, briefly making contact.

“I have to say the reason why I love motorsport is the man-versus-man fight out there and we totally had that and I loved every lap of it,” Hanses said.