Raoul Owens enjoyed the best possible preparation for next month’s huge ADAC 24 Hour event by taking a fantastic SP10 class win at the Nurburgring-Nordschleife on Sunday, 15th April, during the annual ADAC 24 Hour Qualification Race.
Qualifying the No.74 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 second on the grid for the six-hour contest at the world-renowned German track, the 23-year-old from Pembury in Kent went on to produce an excellent performance in the race along with team-mates Thomas Hetzer, Nicolas Pohler and Florian Weber.
“Winning the Qualifying Race is very exciting, especially leading up to the 24 Hour”, said an elated Owens, “After the disappointment of VLN 1 [in March] I was determined to get a good result this time around at the Nordschleife. It’s a fantastic result and gives a huge morale boost to the whole team going into the 24 Hour race next month.”
Owens took the opening stint of the Qualifying Race and became embroiled in a huge battle over second place, although was prevented from trying to gain the class lead as a result of some team tactics from the Audi entries – frustrating for Owens who had the pace to build a lead.
During the driver cycles through the remainder of the race, the BMW remained on course to secure a second place finish but with just 20 minutes to go a mechanical problem for the leading Audi paved the way for the Walkenhorst Motorsport squad to sweep to victory.
Not only was the outcome to the Qualifying Race a fantastic result in its own right, the win also acts as a tremendous fillip ahead of the ADAC 24 Hour at the Nurburgring-Nordschleife over the weekend 12th/13th May.
“We had good pace during practice, ending the session fastest, and we had a plan of how we could improve the car going into qualifying as there was progress to be made”, reflected Owens, “We made some changes and improvements, on rear stability over the bumps of the Nordschleife, and I was able to qualify P2 for the race which was a great starting point for us to push forward.
“After starting the race, I ended my stint P2 after a heated battle with the Mercedes AMG and Audi R8. Some tactics of team play from Audi hindered my progress to move into first and try and build a gap, so that was a little frustrating.”
He added: “We managed to maintain consistent pace throughout the rest of the stints, though, and were still running P2 until the last 20 minutes when the Audi I had fought with earlier had a mechanical problem and dropped a lot of time which allowed us to pass and take P1. My team-mates drove very well and the team provided a great package for me – it was a great weekend.”