A turbulent racing weekend for Mario Farnbacher on the Nürburgring: During the sixth round of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft, the 24-year-old clocked up a new best time with the Lexus RC F GT3 on the Nordschleife. An enthralling pursuit followed a collision in the initial phase of the race and the chase was crowned by a strong tenth place.
8:00.445 minutes – no Lexus RC F GT3 had ever completed the 24,4 kilometre Eifel circuit so quickly. With this new personal best time, Farnbacher secured himself a last minute fifth on the grid. “The lap time emphasizes our progress with the car. Each race means further important information and we can put this straight back into development”, said the Franconian.
There was, however, a serious collision at the beginning of the four-hour race, when the exhaust was damaged during Dominik Farnbacher’s fight with an Audi for third position. “We were then forced to take the car in for repairs and had to change our strategy. The exhaust and also the right rear suspension were damaged”, Farnbacher explained.
Subsequently, the rest of the race was devoted to recovering lost time. The brothers worked steadily forwards from the back of a large field of 150 competing cars and just two hours later were again in the top 20. After a total of 27 laps, Mario and Dominik Farnbacher clinched a tenth place in the overall classification and were able to celebrate a victory in the SPX prototype class.
Mario Farnbacher travels on from the Eifel Nürburgring to the U.S. Virginia Raceway, a circuit outside Danville, where he takes part in the third to last race of this year’s IMSA SportsCar Championship season. The race starts on Sunday 28th August at 19:35 (German time) with live coverage on www.imsa.com.
