Girls Only take first class podium in the Porsche Cup, As new record number of female participants enter the NLS
- MIKA BÖCKER
- Apr 15
- 6 min read
The all-female Girls Only Team finally made their first start in the Porsche Cup AT2 class this season and secured their first podium finish at the NLS3. Alongside them, a total of 13 other women entered the third round at the Nürburgring.
After years in the BMW GT4 SP8T class, the Girls Only Team made their first start in the Porsche Cup AT2 class this season and, following a race cancellation and a retirement, has now secured its first podium finish in the NLS3. Alongside them, a total of 13 other women, some of them making their debut, entered the third round, setting a new record for female participants.
In addition to the aforementioned Girls Only team, their talent pool/junior team, consisting of Elena Egger, Julia Ponkratz, and Siri Hökfelt, also competed in a BMW 330i. Furthermore, Patricija Stalidzane drove the Konrad Lamborghini GT3, Happinessa a Porsche Cayman, Flavia Pellegrino Fernandes a Golf 8 GTI, Katja Thomas a BMW 318, Sarah Ganser a BMW 240i, Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky an Audi TCR, Tabea Jünger a BMW M2 Cup, and Chantal Prinz and Pippa Mann each competed in the Porsche machinery. Katharina Lippka was not initially listed on the entry list but later joined the Bitter Corsa team.
Qualifying began promptly, and all teams quickly took to the track to avoid issues. Janina Schall and Julia Ponkratz started for the two Girls Only cars. Vallers and Engelhardt started in the Audi and the Lamborghini, attempting to quickly set some initial lap times. With times of 9:08 and 8:14 respectively, they set some solid early laps. At the start of the session, Katja Thomas's team received a black and orange flag due to a GPS signal malfunction. Qualifying was brought to an early halt.
A Porsche suffered engine failure on the Döttinger Höhe straight, effectively placing almost the entire 2 km straight under Code 60. This forced the cars to reduce their speed by nearly 200 km/h, ruining their lap times. Ponkratz was particularly frustrated after her stint. "I was doing very well on my second lap and could have significantly improved my time, but then there was this Code 60 on the Döttinger Höhe and it was all over," she explained after her stint. She was then replaced by Egger, who was expected to improve the time after the Code 60.
Chloe Chong, who moved up from the Talent Pool, first joined the Girls Only main team and managed to beat Schall's time by 10 seconds on the open track. Flavia Pellegrino Fernandes' team had an accident with their Golf and ended qualifying with a damaged front suspension, forcing them into the pits. The repairs won't be completed in time for the formation lap, and they will have to start from the pits with a time penalty.
Stalidzane's Lamborghini will start as the best all-female team from 5th place overall, with Engelhardt taking the opening stint. Happinessa qualified in 112th overall, with Weber driving the first stint. The Girls Only teams will start from 52nd with Schall and 116th with Ponkratz. Jünger, Mann, and Ganser will also start further back in 91st, 98th, and 109th positions, respectively.
The Audi TCR finished in 63rd place, while Chantal Prinz achieved 34th. Apart from Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Jünger, all teams improved their positions in the early stages. Janina Schall particularly stood out, bringing the Porsche up to 35th place in the first lap, gaining almost 20 positions overall. The Veedol chicane at the end of the Grand Prix circuit proved, as so often before, to be a hotspot for overtaking. However, this opportunity was lost after 45 minutes when the BMW Z4 GT3 crashed near the Nordschleife entrance, triggering a yellow flag period starting at that chicane.
The recovery operation also took almost 45 minutes. During this time, the Happinessa car entered the pit lane not via the normal approach, but via the shortcut, thus losing a lap of the Grand Prix circuit. Schall also pitted slightly earlier, after just six laps, and handed the car over to Chloe Chong. At the exit, an incoming car was overlooked, resulting in slight contact. In addition to the time lost reversing, an investigation for an unsafe release was also initiated.
After an hour of racing, Lefterov had taken over the Konrad Lamborghini. From second place, it had lost two positions to the eventual winner, the BMW M4 GT3, and the Grello Porsche. At that point, Prinz was in 20th place, which also meant she was in fifth place in the Porsche Cup standings. The Girls Only team lost time and was briefly in 93rd place overall, but still managed to maintain second place in their class.
They had briefly been behind the Talent Pool car, now driven by Egger, in 91st place. Pippa Mann had only been able to complete three laps before the car unfortunately retired. Thomas and Happinessa, along with Vallers in the Audi TCR and Jünger in the BMW, were battling further down the field for a place in the top 100 overall. After the unfortunate pit stop, Chong was nevertheless able to bring the Girls Only Porsche 992 back up to 77th place within a few laps. The team gained many more positions thanks to late pit stops by the smaller classes.
After 100 minutes, problems on the track began to mount. The Hatzenbach section was just the beginning. A Code 60 zone quickly followed, stretching from Bergwerk to Mutkurve, and then Pflanzgarten II to Stefan-Bellof-S. The latter two, in particular, caused significant time losses; even among the GT3 cars, times were almost exclusively over 9 minutes. Some of these The zones should remain in place for over an hour, so adjusting the strategy wouldn't be worthwhile.
Shortly before the second pit stops, two of our teams received bad news from race control: Happinessa had missed a Code 60. The investigation dragged on; the Girls Only team received a drive-through penalty for the unsafe release, losing some of the positions Chong had gained. The Kornad Lamborghini also lost positions after the second stop, and Stalidzane subsequently found herself in seventh place overall.
Thomas, Pellegrino Fernandes, and Happinessa continued to fight, trying to make up for earlier problems. Jünger's team had meanwhile managed to climb into the top 100, finishing in 96th place. Ahlin-Kottulinski had dropped back to 83rd after a strong start. The second Girls Only team also eventually had to concede positions to the drivers in the faster classes, leaving Egger in 103rd place. Ganser's team experienced a similar setback, although they only dropped back to P70.
Retirements continued to mount in the second half of the race. The track map showed hardly any green sections. Accidents occurred at Brünnchen and Kallenhardt, among other places. During the driver change, the Girls Only team's Porsche was initially pushed backwards into the pits. After contact in the pits, a knocking sound was reported from the front axle.
After a brief check, the car rejoined the track with Fabienne Wohlwend at the wheel. They had since been lapped by the class leader but had managed to climb back up to 62nd place overall. Stalidzane in the Konrad Lamborghini was also among those who retired. Her race ended just over halfway through. Pellegrino Fernandes' Golf only lasted an hour before she too had to retire. Chantal Prinz's Porsche also encountered problems but managed to finish the race, albeit with a significant time loss.
Only in the final hour did the track conditions improve considerably, and the pace picked up again. The highest-placed car with a female driver was the Girls Only Team in 62nd place. They were followed closely by the Audi TCR, with Eis now at the wheel, in 63rd. The teams of Ganser and Jünger were also close behind in 70th and 74th place, respectively.
The Girls Only Talent Pool also made it into the top 100 in 99th place with Hökfelt at the wheel, just ahead of Happinessa in 101st. However, the renewed high pace of the race disrupted the strategy, and several teams, especially both Girls Only teams, had to make a splash and dash pit stop. The clear green light didn't last forever, though. There were also yellow flag periods at the exit of Fuchsröhre and Metzgesfeld.
Further problems arose at Galgenkopf towards the end of the race. For the teams that still had pit stops to complete, this was a stroke of luck, as it limited their time loss. Just before the finish line, Happinessa received a penalty for a Code 60 violation, as the team was given a 103-second time penalty after the race. This dropped them back a bit.
Overall, the women's final results were nevertheless respectable: The Girls Only Team finished 46th overall and 2nd in their class. Their Talentpool team managed 91st place overall and 8th in their class, closely followed by Happinessa in 93rd place and 3rd in their class. Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinski achieved 51st place in her debut, securing silver in her class. Ganser's team finished 67th overall and 7th in their class. Tabea Jünger came in 72nd, 4th in her class.
Chantal Prinz salvaged 88th place overall, but only 11th in her class. Katja Thomas rounded out the top 100 in 99th place and once again won her class. After a rather quiet race, Lippka finished 101st in her Bitter Corsa, also winning her class.
The next two races, qualifying for the 24-hour race, will take place from April 18th to 19th, 2026, before a longer break until June.
