Theis, Fischer earn top-five at Silverstone

The race on an extremely hot summer day was the most physically challenging for both drivers, but in the end they were able to reward themselves with a hard earned result in a highly competitive GTE starter field.

Qualifying was as expected. The team had solid pace, but not quite enough to compete for a spot on the grid in the top-five. But Pascal Theis was happy with setting a fastest lap of 1:57.877 for seventh starting position.

The 12 Hours of Silverstone went under way Saturday afternoon under the hot Britsh sun and Theis was ready. Avoiding contact in a close call coming out of the final chicane to take the green flag of the race, Theis stayed cool but ultimately lost one position early in the race. Still, it was an overall smooth start to one long, exhausting race ahead.

Theis with good start, before drama hits

Eventually working his way up to P6 within the first half hour, the Frankfurt, Germany driver was soon facing the prospect of lapping the first GT3 class cars for the first time.

On lap 15, coming out of turn three, Theis and Angelo Montalbano in the No. 98 Mercedes AMG GT3 of HSR made contact, sending the GT3 car into a spin. Theis somehow was able to maintain control and go on, but lost one position in the process along with a slight bit of damage to the rear of the car.

"I don't know. I have to look at the replay later. I thought I gave him plenty of room but then we made contact. If it was my fault, I'm terribly sorry. Turn three gets a little tight, but I had such a fast exit, I felt like I had to go for it.", Theis said.

However, the situation was not over just yet as the 26-year old was passed by Eetu Vainiokangas in the No. 9 YMCA Esports Racing BMW M8 GTE, who took advantage of Theis' slow pace due to the incident.

Vainiokangas then lost control and locked up the brakes directly in front of Theis, on the exist of turn seven. Theis could not react in time and plowed into the rear of the BMW M8, damaging both cars, with the worse end for the No. 9 machine.

"That one was worse than the first one. I let the BMW pass and then he just messed up his exit and started to spin. Then he locked up the brakes right on the middle of the racing line and I had nowhere to go. Luckily the damage to the front of our car was minimal.", Theis added.

© 2020 Fischer Motorsport Lap 15: Theis and Angelo Montalbano in the No. 98 Mercedes AMG GT3 collide on the exit of turn three

Theis went on to complete his opening double-stint without any further incidents before team-mate Benjamin Fischer took over the steering wheel of the No. 84 Porsche 911 RSR GTE. The team was now solidly established in eighth place, but was still looking to move up.

Other teams managed to stretch fuel a bit more than the Fischer Motorsport machine on that day, but did not gain an advantage on number of pit stops in the process. Instead, the No. 84 Porsche team proved to content based on consistency and avoiding major mistakes the rest of the way.

The team struggled with tires fading quickly after twenty laps, leaving the team vulnerable the remaining ten laps of each stint. Fischer especially struggled at the end of his first stint, almost losing control on the exit of Luffield but hanging on just barely. Still, the Leipzig, Germany native lost almost seven seconds in the process.

In alternating order, Theis and Fischer continued throughout the race, running double stints in the 12 hour event. On lap 296, with just under two hours remaining in the race, Theis entered turn two a little deep and lost control over his car, sending the car into a spin that cost six seconds but did not cause damage.

It was Fischer who took on the car for the final two stints, to close out Round 2 of the iRacing Endurance Series 2020. The team now had pushed itself into position to battle for fourth place against the No. 3 Porsche of SROC Racing Forces.

As Fischer was pushing hard, lap after lap, he reached the slower class GT3 cars of Flatout SimSports Myles Owens in the No. 45 Ferrari and Sena Yamashita of Japan's Passing Racing Team's No. 20 Ferrari. The two were battling for P15 in class and Fischer was setting up a pass on the outside of Luffield, when he ran into the rear of Yamashita's car for a bit of contact.

© 2020 Fischer Motorsport Benjamin Fischer and SROC Racing Force's No. 3 Porsche driver Vince Peeters gave fans a spectacular fourth place battle in the closing hour of the race

"I was in a rush, trying to battle for fourth place. I was pushing as hard as I could, driving on the limit the whole final two stints. I felt like the No. 20 Ferrari could have moved over a little bit on the exit there. I thought he would, but when he didn't, I didn't lift quickly enough and ran into him. It cost both of us time and them one position, I believe. So that was very unfortunate. I didn't mean to run into him.", explained Fischer.

After giving the fans what they came for and engaging in an exciting battle with Vince Peeters in the No. 3 Porsche that lasted several laps, Fischer eventually was passed by the SROC Racing Forces driver at Stowe, to take back fourth place.

"That was some awesome racing, man. I knew he had me when I couldn't keep my exit up out of the esses down hangar straight. He got a great run and I sent it too deep into Stowe. He made a great pass, kudos to him.", Fischer acknowledged.

And so it was a fifth place for Fischer Motorsport and the No. 84 Porsche 911 RSR GTE team in the end, bringing the 12 Hours of Silverstone to a positive and successful conclusion for the team. It also was the first time the team had seen the checkered flag in the newly established series.

The iRacing Endurance Series returns on August 8th, for Round 3, the 12 Hours of Barcelona at the Circuit de Catalunya.

© 2020 Fischer Motorsport Official GTE Class Results: 12 Hours of Silverstone