Mission accomplished for Tarquini and Monteiro

Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro accomplished their mission of gaining experience on the Nürburgring Norsdchleife, in view of the visit the WTCC will pay next year to the German road course.

The Italian-Portuguese duo made to the end of the 6H ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen, seventh round of the VLN Langstrecken Meisterschaft Nürburgring series, at the wheel of a 2-litre normally aspirated Honda Civic Type-R prepared by JAS Motorsport.

The race was plagued by the Eifel region’s typical weather conditions that kept on changing from dry to extremely wet over and over.

Monteiro took the start, after setting pole position in the SP3 class, and was soon involved in a collision with a faster car that forced him to pit for repairs and cost the team any chance of fighting for the class win. Since then, the team focused on giving the two drivers the possibility of racing in the best conditions, which meant making extra pit stops for changing the tyres according to the weather changes.

“Tiago had the chance of driving a full dry stint. I only enjoyed one dry lap before the rain started pouring,” Tarquini explained. “It was a necessary experience. The most important thing to be competitive here is the knowledge of the track. During this weekend I have completed sixteen laps and yet I don’t remember a number of corners. We’ll have to come back and test until we memorize each turn, otherwise you must drive on sight, which is very dangerous here… But it’s a new challenge, even for an experienced driver like me. I’m excited, because on this track the driver can still make the difference.”