No. 84 Porsche third in NEC Round 6 despite penalty
The team most recently entered the No. 84 Porsche 992 GT3 Cup in the iRacing Nürburgring Endurance Championship in late May when Benjamin Fischer and Niclas Pedersen won the race to take the first victory of the season.
Since then, Fischer Motorsport has missed two championship rounds due to scheduling conflicts and organizational problems. On Saturday, the team finally returned to the “Green Hell”.
In Qualifying, Fischer spun twice and therefore was forced to start from eleventh place, the rear of the pack.
The race start turned into the first big test for Fischer right away, as a few drivers could not wait past turn one to make their move and so it came to pass, that four cars started lap one side by side.
The inevitable happened: In turn one, there were numerous contacts and spins, but Fischer was able to avoid them and gained two positions.
Only a few corners later, Fischer gained another two positions when two Porsche 992 GT3 Cup spun off the track almost synchronously. After another position gain shortly before the carousel, the team briefly held sixth position.
The biggest scare of the race occurred on lap twelve. Fischer set up a pass of a lapped TCR class car going into Klostertal. Being engaged in a tough two-car battle that had lasted for several laps already, the Porsche directly behind Fischer saw a chance and moved Fischer off the track.
Only with a lot of luck, the Leipzig, Germany driver was able to keep the car from hitting the barriers and continued without losing a position.
“That was crazy. I have no idea what the guy was thinking. That could have been the end of the race for three cars, really. We are incredibly lucky, that this didn’t turn out worse.”, said Fischer about the situation.
After 16 laps and two nearly flawless stints, Fischer came back to the pits. That’s when the 38-year old made a rookie mistake and slowed down too late, picking up a 40-second pit speed penalty.
When Niclas Pedersen returned to the track in the car, the team had fallen back to P7 with very little hope remaining, that a podium or even top-five result was still possible.
But Pedersen didn’t give up and pushed hard. Lap after lap he got closer and eventually closed the gap to P6 and P5 in front. A three-car battle ensued where the Dane eventually took control and won the upper hand.
About 35 minutes before the end, Pedersen came back to the pit lane for the final pit stop of the day. The team decided to gamble and take no tires, in an attempt to make up some of the 40 seconds lost with the penalty earlier.
The strategy paid off and at the end of the race the No. 84 Porsche crossed the line in third place, earning the team’s second consecutive podium finish.
“We showed today that even under difficult circumstances, we are able to earn good results. Especially in the second half of a stint, we were really strong. But P3 was the limit for us today, the top two were simply too far away and too quick.”, said Pedersen.
The next NEC Round takes place on September 4th.