ZAKSPEED takes impressive 6th place in Qualification race at Nurburgring

Perfect premiere with the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3Top-Result in first important milestoneDrivers demonstrate the race car´s strengt

Team ZAKSPEED debuted with the new Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in the Qualification race for the ADAC Zurich 24h-Rennen on Sunday. The team based in Niederzissen demonstrated a great performance, finishing in sixth place in the six-hour race on the Nordschleife.

Following the very first Roll-out on the legendary Nordschleife past Monday, the feeling for the new car was good, but expectations were kept low. The first qualifying taking place on Saturday was a gamble due to changing weather and track conditions throughout the session. The Team ZAKSPEED placed the Nissan GT-R temporarily on 17th position.

The second part of the qualifying commence on Sunday morning, in which Florian Strauss, GT Academy winner from 2013, set the 21st best time for the grid. Strauss´ team-mate from last year, Marc Gassner, took over the important part of the start and found a good way through the troubles in the opening of the long-distance race.

During the next hours, the Nissan GT-R was running like clockwork and following a great job by the team with the pit-stops, the #24 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 crossed the finishing line in a successful sixth position – a fantastic debut for the Team ZAKSPEED Nissan.

“We are very pleased with the result at the Nürburgring and the cooperation with Nissan”, says Peter Zakowski, Team Principal Team ZAKSPEED. “We were able to collect important data and information during our test last Monday, but a six-hour race is always another challenge. It is great to see that we were able to keep-up with our competitors. Both the team and our drivers did a great job.”

The ZAKSPEED Nissan will compete again in the second VLN round in two weeks’ time.

Driver Quotes:

Florian Strauss:"I am going home with both a happy and a disappointed feeling. We had a good debut, but the goal was to qualify for the Top-30 for the 24h-race, for which we would have had to set the tenth best time or finish in the Top-5 in the race. Now we finished sixth, so we are a little disappointed despite the great result. But taking into consideration, that ZAKSPEED has had the Nissan for just over a week, there is still a lot of potential to come. All drivers did a great job.”

Marc Gassner:"We started pretty much in the middle of the starting field and the weather was also a tricky part. Rain, hail, the conditions were sometimes very difficult and we lost temperature in our tyres. But considering it was my very first race-stint with the Nissan GT-R around the Nordschleife I am very pleased with the result and my performance."


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