The Comtoyou Racing team alongside driving talent Nicki Thiim today achieved that extremely race event in modern GT racing by scooping not just a pair of overall pole positions but also two overall race wins at this weekends DTM Series visit to the Norisring.
Again fielding a pair of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s for the Dane and fellow teammate Nicolas Baert, it was the Dane who took the performance momentum secured at the previous round from the Lausitzring into the improved street circuit layout within Nuremburg to achieve this feat.
Saturdays race opener proved itself to be the usually expected exciting one as twenty-one GT3 cars (with their solo drivers) entered the tight hairpin for the first time. Securing the race lead during the opening laps, the race was soon red flagged for a nasty incident at the hairpin that saw one car miss its braking point/or lose their brakes, to hit into the barrier before slamming into the car in front. Whilst both drivers were eventually hospitalised as a result – neither are understood to have sustained life-threatening injuries although one did sustain a significant leg injury.
That meant that Thiim had to take on another restart with just over twenty minutes of the hour-long race remaining but at least his tyres were still relatively fresh from his mandatory stop just before the red flag. Getting back to green, Thiim didn’t have too much to defend from the opening lap pressure to come home for his only second race win within the series of his career and Comtoyou Racing’s first. Baert would come home P15 overall.
Race two on Sunday in contrast was at least started under cloudy but dry conditions before the rain arrived at the circuit forcing Race Control to send out the Safety Car for the initial wet laps. Getting back to green, the pack endured the slippery conditions until another red flag was shown – again for a multiple car incident at the hairpin, just this time not as serious as Saturday but with only twenty minutes having elapsed.
The restart allowed those to fit wets if they chose to as the quick quickly dried. With some close company by a Ford Mustang, Thiim had to very dominant on track to maintain track position as the compulsory stop was still looming but another quick stop from the team saw the Dane maintain his lead and take his second race win of the weekend. Baert again finished down in P15.
Photo credits – Team / DTM
