Schnabl Takes Over One of Frikadelli’s Porsches for Spa

Schnabl Engineering has taken over the running of Frikadelli Racing Team’s withdrawn No. 3 Porsche 911 GT3 R for next weekend’s TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa.

The German squad, which runs the Porsche-based Falken Motorsports NLS program, will field an independent Pro-category Porsche entry for Dennis Olsen, Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen.

Frikadelli pulled out of Spa last Tuesday due to the impacts of recent severe flooding in the area around the Nürburgring, which is close to where the team is based. 

Schnabl Engineering principal Sven Schnabl explained that his deal came together after a last-minute phone call from Porsche the following day. His crew is now working through an intense period to get the Frikadelli car ready in time for the Belgian enduro.

“We received a call from Sebastian Golz from Porsche, asking if there is any possibility to do something together, in order to run at least one car,” Schnabl told Sportscar365.

“Normally we speak together regarding the Nürburgring 24, and that is four to five months preparation in advance. But now this is four to five days!

“I said we cannot run two cars, it’s impossible. But there was a possibility for one. First, we had to put the financial package together. There was some help from Porsche and some other people in the background, in order to make it happen.”

The No. 3 Porsche has remained at Frikadlli Racing’s workshop in Barweiler, where some of Schnabl’s full-time staff have been working since Thursday.

The vehicle’s black and green livery includes the message: ‘in memory of the victims of the flooding disaster’.

“The car is at Frikadelli’s workshop, so my boys have been up there,” said Schnabl. “I stayed at our workshop to take care of other things like tire orders and hotel bookings, together with our team manager Sebastian Stadler. He was working flat out as well.

“We took a lot of our parts which we have taken as spares, which we prepared [at Schnabl] in advance. The race car itself is not coming to our workshop before the Spa race.

“Then we had to do the livery. We could have driven just a black carbon car, but that was not the idea.

“So we had to look for somebody who was going to do that. Thursday, Friday and Saturday… being in the paddock Sunday evening at 7 p.m., there is not much time left.”

Schnabl praised the “brilliant job” carried out by his colleagues to get the entry together.

“Everybody is working flat-out,” he said. “We had people coming back from holidays and we’ve had to look for a pit stop crew.

“We took a couple of [freelance] people over from Frikadelli. To do this half a year in advance is no problem at all, but to do it three days in advance… it’s been busy.

“Everybody is giving a hand as much as they can, and Porsche as well, because we had to order parts. Nürburgring spec is different to [SRO] GT3 spec. They are helping as much as they can.”

The Schnabl driving crew for Spa is adjusted from the No. 3 trio that first appeared in Frikadelli’s planned lineup.

2019 Spa race winner Christensen was originally assigned to the No. 13 Frikadelli Porsche alongside Thomas Preining and Julien Andlauer, while Patrick Pilet was due to join Makowiecki and Olsen in the No. 3.