GirlsOnly Talent Pool follows up on its successful debut

After a successful debut in the previous race, the GirlsOnly Talent Pool line-up once again finished inside the top ten in class in the final NLS round, this time featuring Patricija Stalidzane, Carmen Kraav and Elena Egger.

Photo credits: Gruppe C Photography

After a successful debut in the previous race, the GirlsOnly Talent Pool line-up once again finished inside the top ten in class in the final NLS round.

Patricija Stalidzane joined the Talent Pool team for the season finale, standing in for Julia Ponkratz. Starting from 75th place in tricky conditions, she quickly moved up to 63rd overall within the first half-hour, helped in part by several cars that had opted for the wrong tyres amid the uncertain weather and were forced to pit early.

While the race began on a damp track, it dried quickly — but not for long, as drizzle returned within the first hour. Stalidzane continued her strong opening stint, driving the BMW up to 50th overall and second in class.

As the rain intensified, the Talent Pool BMW pitted after around 70 minutes, with Kraav taking over driving duties. With conditions worsening on some parts of the Nordschleife, most teams switched to rain tyres, and accidents increased among those who had stayed out too long on slicks.

Still inexperienced on the Nordschleife, Kraav did her best to match the pace of her more seasoned rivals in the difficult conditions, dropping to 67th overall and seventh in class during her stint of just over an hour. Nevertheless, she kept the car on track — an achievement in itself on a day when many failed to do so.

Incidents occurred at Steilstrecke, Karussell, Hohenrain, and in the Stefan Bellof-S. Kraav, too, made a mistake when exiting the Hohenrain chicane, as she missed the turn onto the Grand Prix circuit and instead entered the historic pit lane. Since driving against the direction of traffic is prohibited there, and she could not turn around, she had to drive through the pit lane and rejoined the Nordschleife at the Sabine Schmitz curve. This meant she had not crossed the Grand Prix circuit’s start-finish line, effectively losing a lap and a class position.

When Kraav completed this unusually long, 21-minute lap, she pitted for the final driver change, handing over to Egger. Despite the increasingly difficult weather, Egger managed her stint without major issues, focusing on damage limitation.

Several other drivers also encountered trouble, with three cars sliding into the gravel at Haus Haken within a short period. Egger kept it clean, reduced the gap to seventh place to nine minutes, but could not recover the lost lap.

Nevertheless, the Talent Pool team gained valuable experience on the world’s most challenging racetrack and added another top-ten class finish — eighth place — to their record.

The season finale also brought reason to celebrate for GirlsOnly: Janina Schall, driver of the main line-up, and the team secured the Ladies Trophy title. After the previous race, Jasmin Preisig still had a mathematical chance at the championship, but with her absence from the finale, Schall clinched the title as soon as the race started.