Nürburgring Endurance Championship

No. 85 BMW earns top ten in NEC Round 5

by Fischer Motorsport PR

July 19, 2021 08:58 PM CET 679 Views

Round 5 of the iRacing NEC took place Sunday under difficult circumstances for Fischer Motorsport. After the flooding disaster of the past days, the team’s thoughts were with the victims in the Eifel region. In the race, the No. 84 BMW M4 GT3 was forced to retire early after crashing. The No. 85 BMW went on to claim a spot in the top-ten by finishing ninth.

Benjamin Fischer put on a strong start in the No. 84 BMW and battled his way all the way up to sixth position.

On lap five Fischer then approached the section of Eschbach, only to find a crash involving another GT3 car and a Mazda MX-5 directly in front of him. Fischer still tried to avoid the scene, but just at the same time the crashed GT3 car rejoined the track causing another collision.

A very strong start turned into disaster in Sunday's iRacing NEC Round 5 for the No. 84 BMW after this crash at Eschbach

After a long repair stop the team was able to continue the race, but dropped all the way to P23, only to find trouble again on lap twelve, at the track section Kesselchen when another GT3 car pushed Fischer off the track, sealing the early retirement of the team from the race.

“Things just aren’t going our way these days. Today we had another two completely unnecessary crashes that weren’t our fault. It’s really tough, when you are victim of something that you can’t control.”, said Benjamin Fischer after the crash.

As the starting driver for the sister car No. 85 BMW M4 GT3, Niclas Pedersen put on a strong double stint to open the race up for the team, after he qualified the car tenth on the grid.

Holding a solid position in the top-ten, the Dane handed the car over to team-mate Pascal Theis at the halfway mark of the race. The Frankfurt, Germany driver then put on an impressive drive, to bring the team all the way up to fourth position and things started to look like the team may be on its way to its second top-five finish of the season.

But only five laps before the end of the race, Theis was pushed off the track by a Mercedes AMG GT3 that he was battling with for fourth position, at the same spot where the team’s sister car had crashed earlier. Both cars crashed into the barriers, but the Fischer Motorsport car got the worst end of it and had to come in to the pits for repairs.

Pascal Theis in the No. 85 BMW was involved in a crash at Kesselchen, shortly before the end of the race, to prevent a better result

“No idea what the Mercedes driver was thinking. I thought I had left enough space on the outside. He pulled to the outside and next thing I know we are both crashing. It’s tough, you know. I think we definitely had a shot at a top-five today.”, explained Pascal Theis.

After the pit stop shortly before the end, the team was unable to recapture its previous pace and had to surrender some positions as Pascal Theis eventually crossed the finish line in ninth place.

“At least we got a top-ten out of today. But it’s bittersweet, really, because without that crash I’m sure we would have ended up at least four spots higher. We had the pace. We just need the bit of luck to finish off these races.”, Niclas Pedersen summarized the race.

Of much higher importance to the team at the end of the day: Together with FR13DA Sports Group Fischer Motorsport donated a total of 200 EUR to the German Red Cross relief fund for the victims of the flooding disaster, specifically from the Eifel region.

“Even if this wasn’t the best race for us today, we don’t forget that there are many people who are doing way worse than us right now, also in this region. So it’s important to us to help any way we can. We continue to keep all those affected by this disaster in our hearts and thoughts and hope that the help reaches them quickly and exactly in the way they need it.”, Fischer said after the race.

The Nürburgring Endurance Championship continues in two weeks, with Round 6, which will be the last race before the much-needed five-week summer break.