Schreiner and Koyama secure class podiums, as female drivers face mixed fortunes in challenging NLS Double-Header
The NLS double-header produced a weekend of contrasting fortunes for the female drivers, with several promising performances in Saturday’s race followed by an even more unpredictable second race in changing weather conditions.
The NLS double-header produced a weekend of contrasting fortunes for the female drivers, with several promising performances in Saturday’s race followed by an even more unpredictable second race in changing weather conditions. Carrie Schreiner narrowly missed an AT1 class podium in NLS8 after the Equipe Vitesse Audi R8 stopped with just 13 minutes remaining, while Miki Koyama secured second place in SP10 and Viktoria Bochen claimed third in the BMW 325i Cup in her first race of the season.
The returning “Girls Only” Porsche also crossed the line first in AT2 with Janina Schall, Fabienne Wohlwend and Chloe Chong, only to be disqualified after technical inspection, while Katja Thomas once again won the V3 class and Flavia Pellegrino Fernandes finished fifth in VT2-F+4WD.
Sunday brought further challenges, with the Girls Only Porsche unable to start because of an oil issue, Schreiner recovering to third in AT1, Koyama finishing fifth in SP10 and Siri Hökfelt taking fourth in class after losing a potential podium during a difficult first Nordschleife race in mixed conditions, while Fernandes' Golf retired in the rain despite her Ladies Trophy title already being secured.
The season highlight of the NLS—the season’s only double-header—was on the agenda. Although the “24h Qualifiers” count towards the championship standings, they are organized by different promoters and are only partially integrated into the NLS series. Consequently, the entry list for both races was extensive.
Carrie Schreiner once again competed in the AT1 class in an Audi R8 for Equipe Vitesse. The “Girls Only” team finally returned to action in the AT2 class, racing the Porsche Cup car that had been crashed at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The car was driven by Janina Schall, Fabienne Wohlwend, and Chloe Chong. Flavia Pellegrino Fernandes continued to drive the Golf in the VT2 Front+AWD class, while Miki Koyama raced the Toyota GT4 in the SP10 class.
For NLS8, Katja Thomas drove her usual V3 BMW, while Viktoria Bochen competed in the BMW 325i Cup with car #124. NLS9 saw Elena Egger (BMW #502) and Siri Hökfelt (BMW #652) take the wheel. Egger had originally planned to run solo, but due to various circumstances, this did not materialize, and she ended up sharing the car.
In NLS8, Schreiner started from the rear of the first starting group. This made it very difficult to keep pace with the leaders in the AT1 class, as numerous Cup 2 cars had slotted in between them. After 30 minutes, she was running 24th overall, although she was sitting in third place within her class, but was already trailing the leader by a minute. Wohlwend had the honor of taking the “Girls Only” Porsche—now sporting number 640 instead of 140 due to class regulations—out for the start of the race. Running second in her class, she was attempting to move up from 39th place overall and close the one-minute gap to the leaders.
Directly ahead in the overall standings was the Toyota GT4, which also held second place in its class. The Golf largely managed to stay clear of the minor battles at the start; after 30 minutes, Schönfeldt was driving it, trailing the third-placed car in the class by just under 40 seconds. In the V3 BMW, Schmitz took the opening stint, holding 126th place overall. Not far ahead, Bochen’s teammate Wolpertinger was running in 115th place overall and fifth in the class.
After just a few laps, the usual accidents began—the Nordschleife is, after all, one of the most demanding tracks in the world. The trouble started at Schwalbenschwanz, triggering the first major “Code 60” zone. The section from Hohe Acht to Wippermann quickly followed suit. However, unlike other races this season, the situation settled down for a while, and the track returned to green-flag conditions after an hour.
Before the first pit stops, Schreiner had already moved up to second in the class and 15th overall, trailing the leader by 90 seconds. Okumoto, in the Toyota, had improved to 36th overall while maintaining second place in the class. Wohlwend handed the car over to Chong after just one hour, running in 45th place overall. The Golf had also made its pit stop and rejoined the track in 107th place overall and sixth in the class. Wolpertinger had improved to 113th place but held his position within the class; Schmitz, running in 121st, was in a similar situation.
Then, for a while, events—and the cars themselves—began to tumble rapidly. After 70 minutes of racing, the first “Code 60” zone was declared at Adenauer Forst. Shortly thereafter, separate crashes occurred at Fuchsröhre, Aremberg, and Hatzenbach, with cars ending up on their roofs—at least temporarily. Schreiner and Okumoto handed over their cars during their respective eighth laps, with Ziegler and Koyama taking over. Upon taking the wheel, Chong initially dropped to 70th place overall. Bochen also took over the car shortly thereafter, rejoining the track in fourth place in her class and 111th overall.
The race settled into a steady rhythm, with changes in the class standings driven primarily by pit stops, strategies, and accidents. This was largely due to prolonged “Code 60” periods necessitated by guardrail repairs; these repairs could not all be carried out simultaneously and took considerable time. GT3 lap times occasionally ballooned to as much as 10 minutes and 20 seconds, effectively stifling any potential for faster lap times.
As the race approached the halfway mark, minor mishaps became more frequent. A Lamborghini veered onto the grass while braking for the Hohenrain chicane, lost control, and collided with an innocent Porsche, sending both cars into the tyre barriers. Although they managed to free themselves, the Lamborghini came to a halt just before the pit entry.
Other cars also suffered repeated technical failures, making it difficult to maintain a competitive pace throughout the day. A particularly long Code 60 phase occurred in the Hatzenbach section; just as the repair crew was occupied elsewhere, a BMW rolled over, destroying not only the car itself but also a significant stretch of the guardrail. The section remained under caution for a long time because the guardrail repair crew was needed elsewhere, and driving at full speed without the guardrail would have been too dangerous.
Jimmy Broadbent’s #632 Porsche—the so-called “Influencer Car”—also had to retire. Up to that point, it had been leading the AT2 class. However, an incident occurred during the final stint, leaving the car unable to continue. This allowed the “Girls Only” team to make up the laps they were trailing and take the lead.
In the AT1 class, Kroker had taken over the Schreiner car for the final stretch. They were in a promising position—second in class and 17th overall. With just 13 minutes remaining, the Audi suddenly came to a halt near the Schwalbenschwanz section—apparently without outside interference—and had to be towed away. That put an end to their dream of a class podium; it was the only retirement in the class.
The “Girls Only” team crossed the finish line as class winners. However, their celebration was short-lived, as the car was disqualified following technical inspection due to missing aerodynamic flicks on the front end. Consequently, the class appeared in the final results with no classified finishers.
In the BMW 325i class, Viktoria Bochen secured third place—and a trophy—in her first race of the season. Miki Koyama continued her successful run by taking second place in the SP10 class. As the sole entrant in the V3 class, Katja Thomas won her category once again. Flavia Pellegrino Fernandes finished the race in fifth place in the VT2-F+4WD class in her Golf.
Things weren’t really any easier in the Sunday race. Early on, Schönfeldt’s Golf came under heavy attack from a Porsche but managed to turn onto the Nordschleife without difficulty. The “Girls Only” Porsche, however, fared much worse, as oil issues prevented it from starting altogether. A few laps later, car #494 suffered another setback: Schönfeldt had to slow down at the exit of the “Little Carousel” due to a Code 60 zone. A Porsche GT3 failed to spot the pink sign and rear-ended the Golf. Schönfeldt was lucky and able to continue the race.
Schreiner took the start again in the repaired car #18. The opening phase was relatively uneventful, but that changed when light rain began to fall after 45 minutes. Although running higher up the overall order this time, she still sat in fourth place in her class. Koyama took the start in the Toyota but ended the first stint in fifth place in class and 52nd overall. Following the earlier incidents, Schönfeldt held fourth in class, keeping them well in contention. Further back, cars #502 and #652 were racing in the midfield of their respective classes at this stage.
As the rain set in and weather conditions became unpredictable, grip levels changed with every lap, frequently causing cars to slide off or crash. Since much of the track remained dry for the time being, most cars stayed on slick tyres, which proved disastrous in the wet sections. Flugplatz, Kallenhard, and the approach to the Steilstrecke were frequent scenes of these incidents and the resulting Code 60 zones.
After a brief lull in the rain, a heavy downpour hit shortly after the first stint’s pit window closed, again primarily around Kallenhard and the approach to the Steilstrecke, although the Code 60 periods were short-lived this time.
Ziegler took over the car from Schreiner after 70 minutes, facing these tricky and unpredictable conditions. The Audi remained in fourth place in its class. Ten minutes later, the #502 BMW, shared by Egger and her teammates, also pitted, rejoining the race in 97th place overall. The rain was becoming increasingly unpredictable; in particular, classes that could distribute their mandatory pit-stop time across multiple stops were showing a willingness to change tyres frequently to adapt to the conditions.
Weather conditions remained challenging for everyone—even with the right tyres—due to the persistent instability. This led to repeated, often brief, “Code 60” zones at Brünnchen, Steilstrecke, Kallenhard, and Karussell.
At the halfway mark, Ziegler sat in 26th place overall, just under three minutes behind the third-placed car in the class. Koyama was still behind the wheel of the Toyota, holding steady in sixth place in the SP10 class and trailing by 90 seconds. Schönfeldt was also still in the car, holding fourth place in the class with a three-minute deficit. The #652 car, with Siri Hökfelt still waiting to take over, was contending for a class podium at this stage.
Shortly after the race’s midpoint, things seemed to have settled down, and the track remained free of Code 60 zones for the time being. However, trouble struck Koyama’s Toyota, with the team incurring a seven-second stop-and-go penalty for failing to meet the minimum pit-stop duration. Consequently, Okumoto faced a larger-than-planned deficit to make up after the subsequent stop. During the third hour of the race, the weather fluctuated repeatedly, forcing teams and drivers to constantly adjust. For teams featuring female drivers, however, this unfolded without incident.
As the final hour began, the Audi—now driven by Froesse—held fourth place in the class and 33rd overall. Okumoto had fought his way back to fifth in the class, while the Golf continued to run just off the podium pace. Hökfelt had now taken over the #652 BMW; for her, this was her first race featuring the Eifel region’s characteristic weather. Up to this point, she had only experienced continuous rain during practice sessions on the track. Consequently, this was a truly unique experience for her, as she recounted afterwards: “The race was chaotic with half the track dry and the other half full wet. We timed the pit stop to coincide with the rain, so I went out on rain tires—first on a wet surface, and then on a line that was half-wet and half-dry. It was very difficult to find a good rhythm due to the changing conditions; one lap a corner would be wet and the next dry, and vice versa.”
Unfortunately, like many others before her, she fell victim to the Schwedenkreuz section, which is particularly treacherous in the rain. She managed to avoid a collision but lost crucial time in the gravel trap at the Aremberg corner, thereby losing third place in her class. “I could barely see the track at Schwedenkreuz, so aquaplaning while trying to brake sadly caused me to get stuck in the gravel,” she explained after the race. Nevertheless, she clearly enjoyed getting a taste of the Eifel weather: “Extremely challenging, but also very rewarding and fun to learn the art of racing in mixed conditions on the Nordschleife.”
With 40 minutes remaining in the race, the rain—as Hökfelt had already reported—intensified into an extreme downpour, although it did not strike evenly across the circuit. In some areas, even rain tyres offered little help; the Flugplatz, Schwedenkreuz, and Hohe Acht sections, in particular, became trouble spots. Ten minutes later, however, the rain was already a thing of the past, and as the track dried, conditions finally improved.
Schreiner’s team finished the race in third place in their class—a measure of redemption after the previous day’s events. Despite her earlier mishap, Hökfelt managed to secure fourth place in a class that was still new to her. The Koyama-led Toyota team successfully defended fifth place to the finish line, although they missed out on a trophy this time around.
Unfortunately, Flavia Pellegrino Fernandes’ Golf was forced to retire during the heavy downpour; however, this did not affect her standing in the Ladies Trophy, as she had already mathematically clinched the championship title. Egger’s BMW #502 encountered some technical issues during the race but still managed to finish fourth in class.
The grand season finale is scheduled for October 10, 2026. For the female drivers, the focus will shift primarily to the overall championship standings, as the Ladies Trophy rankings have already been decided.
