Last weekend 170 drivers met at the Nürburgring for a special event being also a pilot race for next years ETS-opening round. Our race was run in parallel to the Nürburgring 1000 GT-Race, so there were many spactators from the “big” motorsport.

The scheduled date of the race was a little bit difficult for us, as we will travel to the world championship in Florida next week.
That meant we did not practice on carpet in preparation for the race. With the Eryx 3.0 introduction at the time of the beginning of the outdoor-season, that also meant it was our first carpet race with the production version of this car (of course we had a lot of carpet tests with the prototype), and I was really looking forward, as in theory the low-center of mass of the Eryx 3.0 (with the lower battery-position in combination with the aluminium-chassis) should give us a good advantage on this high traction surface.

Because of the race format with only 2 days for 170 drivers, we only had 3 practice runs. With good team work we still worked out a good setup, although we did not practice on carpet before the race.
Unfortunately I had some problems in the final practice run, so I was seeded in a slower qualification group. That meant I had to overtake a lot during my qualification runs. Although all the other drivers were very cooperative, that still meant I lost some important tenths as the track layout was very tight.
Julian was very fast in the opening round of qualifying, where it seemed he could fight for the win. In the last 2 rounds, he made a few mistakes, and so he started from 4^th position. I started the finals from 9^th position.
Unfortunately his bad luck continued in the first final, when he had to give up after only a few laps.
I tried not to make any mistakes and still keep the pressure up on the drivers in front. That worked ok in the first final and although I had one minor crash I finished 5^th. Marco Kaufmann and Jan Ratheisky who were about 1 second in front of me crashed in the final lap. Unfortunately when I reached the finish line, my race was already over, so I could not benefit. Considering my starting position, that was a good result anyways.

In the second final, everything worked perfect, and I could make up position after position. After 3 minutes Julian was behind me and we were both chasing Jan Ratheisky. As Julian was fast, and Jan was rather slow, it was important for me to overtake him. I could see that I was a lot faster in one corner, and when he went a little bit wide there, I could pass him. Julian could also profit of Jan’s wider line on the corner exit, and so we both finished in 3^rd and 4^th position.
Having scored a 5^th and 3^rd position in the firs finals, I could not improve my points in the last final where I finished 6^th after intense fights with Jan Ratheisy and Martin Hofer.
Julian could recover from his problems in the first lap and finished the run in 4^th position.

In the end we finished the race in 4^th and 5^th position, a result that gives us good confidence for the upcoming indoor-season.