Nurburgring Endurance Championship: Round 1 Race Review

Prologue

2025 is set to be one of the most important years to date in Robin Truswell's iRacing career.

This year (2025) marks Truswell's 6th year (in a row) attempting the Nurburgring Endurance Championship - and his 3rd full season of racing in the GT4 class.

Since making the switch in 2023 - Truswell's GT4 efforts have gone from strength to strength - 2024 marking his best year to date, finishing 24th/57th in his division, after finishing the previous year in 40th/58th

Truswell says he hopes he can make a strong charge in 2025 after scoring a podium in 2023, and 5th in 2024 - the GT4 field being small - but packed with action.

Truswell added that he hopes 2025 can be the first season he attends more than 3 races - hopefully making a positive impact on his season. "If I can end up 24th only competing in 3 races - I'd love to imagine where I'd end up after completing the full season" he finished. Qualifying Grey skies loomed above the Eifel as the green flag waved to start the first qualifying session of the season.

Many got caught out by the conditions - too dry for wets, yet once you hit the wet sections of the track, you're done for.

The treacherous conditions could be clearly seen in the GT4 class as the checkered flag fell with 9th/12th putting in a time of 9:55.935 - poleman Julian Silveira for Xabarin put in a blistering 9:12.324 - a whole 43 seconds quicker.

Truswell in the TMS (Transport Made Simple) Central Racing car finished the session in a respectable 6th with a 9:41.730 - 6 seconds off the driver starting in 5th.

Race Thankfully (for the drivers), the weather cleared up pretty quickly - and whilst a few damp patches remained, the track was mostly dry - allowing for easier conditions as the race started. It was an absolute field-day for Truswell in 6th as the top 3 all came to blows -

the GT4 leader tagging the last-placed GT3 into a spin, and P2 being spun out by P3 (former pole-sitter) as he cut the latter off.

As they all settled into position - Truswell settled into 10th - before a large incident at Hoheneichen - wiping out many of the GT4 contenders.

A pit-starting Mercedes GT3 was making their way through the GT4 field, and tried to go for a gap which wasn't really there/a Porsche GT4 didn't give enough room for the GT3 - and they made contact, the GT3 spinning P6, who spun, bounced off the barrier and rejoined the track - backwards at 100mph, futher collecting P8, P9 ploughing in with nowhere to go.

Truswell would start the second lap back where he started in P6, 14 seconds behind P5.

P7 behind was on a charge - and even without a rear wing - managed an average lap-time of less than 8:50 - Truswell averaging mid-8:55's.

On Lap 3, the driver ahead of Truswell (P6) took Kallenhard too fast and spun, hitting the armco on the outside. I'd return to 6th as a result.

At the end of Lap 4, the driver in 4th officially started the GT4-Pit-Window by pitting - from here, it was about maximising one's fuel-saving to try and eek out as much fuel as possible - with losing as little time as possible.

Truswell was quickly promoted to 5th.

After a short period of calm (within the GT4 field) - on Lap 7, exactly an hour and two minutes into the race - the leader peeled into the pits, with the remainder of the GT4 field in tow. After an hour of racing, P1 pulled out a 1 minute 39 second gap to Truswell. With still 3 hours of the race left to go - Truswell knew the tyres wouldn't last that long, so had a quick tyre change and re-fuel and was back out on track within no time.

First stint done, Truswell got his head down and focussed on closing down the 1 minute - 52-second gap he had to the car ahead. Truswell re-joined in 5th - the pink Mercedes that started 2nd (front row) not re-emerging from the pits - his day only further improved as the BMW ahead was due to pit as he hadn't done so thus far. Starting the 9th lap, Truswell was in 4th with a 51 second gap behind (and a 2 minute gap in front) - things were looking good.

On Lap 10, the Mercedes ahead overtook the BMW in front of them for 3rd - starting Lap 9, my gap to the BMW was 1 minute 25 seconds, which Truswell completely obliterated the following lap as he had to return to the pits (possibly for a penalty). Truswell ate into the gap like it was cake - narrowing the gap to just 30 seconds on Lap 11 - before my computer froze on a straight, and almost had to come to a complete stop to avoid crashing, the computer unfreezing quickly after.

Whilst Truswell was making massive progress on the driver ahead - the driver behind was also making massive ground on him - slicing a 1 minute - 18 second gap down to a minute exactly before having a clumsy spin at the end of the GP circuit - completely annihilating all progress made - but with a seriously rapid lap-time - the Porsche was quickly back on the tail of Truswell in no time.

By Lap 12, the Porsche had reduced the gap to under a minute - even with the spin the prior lap.

Upon starting the following lap, the Porsche had further reduced the gap to just 36 seconds.

With Truswell not making any progress on the BMW ahead (the gap still hovering around the 40-second mark before the second round of pit-stops) - Truswell was slowly coming under pressure from the Porsche behind.

On the final lap before the second route of pit-stops, Truswell was 35 seconds behind P3 and had a 20 second gap behind - things were about to get spicy.

At the half-way mark in the race, the white Mercedes AMG GT4 of Peter Armstrong dived into the pits for his second pit-stop of the race, followed by Xavier Roig - also in a Mercedes (P2) and Truswell in 4th (the BMW in 3rd was on an alternate strategy) - with Seruga, in 5th not two seconds behind.

Seruga takes tyres and changes tyres - Truswell kept his tyres, and as he's solo-ing, had no need for a driver change.

As quickly as they all dove in, Truswell and now Rudhart left in the order they came in - Truswell now with a 8-second buffer.

It was just a matter of time before the rapid Porsche would pass Truswell, Truswell just needed to hold on out for as long as he possibly could.

And "hold on" Truswell did - holding on out for 5 laps - and with less than an hour to go and a 27-second gap to the car behind, things were looking strong for Truswell.

For one last time, on Lap 22, Truswell pitted from 4th.

Starting the 23rd lap with just over half an hour to go, the gap to the car behind still sat at 20 seconds. With the race approaching its final half-hour, the race came alive - P2 pitted, promoting Truswell - temporarily up into 3rd - with an 11 second gap behind.

Just 30 minutes remained in the race - and Truswell was holding on to 3rd with everything he had - but the gap was diminishing - and quickly - P4 behind cutting 2 seconds into the gap on JUST the GP circuit alone.

P4 caught and passed Truswell at Kesselchen - only a few corners before Karussell - Truswell had put in an almighty effort fending off a MUCH faster car for as long as he did - but it was only a ticking time-bomb before Truswell would be caught - and the pass made.

Truswell had spent a good majority of the race in 4th - so, whilst a shame, it was a pill he'd have to swallow.

The clock ticked down with just 10 minutes - and 2 laps remaining, Truswell found himself in no-man's-land - 24 seconds off the Porsche ahead, and a further 10 seconds ahead of the BMW behind - whom he had pace on.

As quickly as the race started, Truswell found himself on the final lap - all he had to do was bring the car home - and with a comfortable 12 second gap behind, Truswell managed to cruise home in a VERY respectable 4th in class.

Every lap was a chapter - every stint a story - and if that's just the first race - we are in for a truly thrilling season.

Nurburgring Endurance Championship - GT4 Class (Division 6)

What does this mean for the championship?

Obviously, it's only the very first race - so there's very little to go off.

The "good" news is, Truswell's best championship finish in the NEC stands at 25th.

He just has to stay in the fight, and stay where he is to beat the prior record.

With 8 races still left to run - if any of the drivers ahead of Truswell miss a round (due to unavailability) - it only promotes Truswell further up the field. Despite finishing 4th, Truswell's relatively low position (in contrast to his finishing position) is due to his iRating - Truswell was put in a lower "split", offering less points for higher positions (as the strength of field/skill-level) is lower.

The higher splits (races) Truswell climbs - the harder achiving 4th/results like these will be - BUT more and higher points will be on offer for lower positions.

For example, 66 points could be on offer for finishing 6th in a higher split, but in Truswell's split, only 54 points were on offer for 4th.

Splits are calculated by average iRating (of the field) - so the only way to score more points (like those above Truswell) is to increase iRating - to be put in those higher splits, to score more points.

Got it? Good.

Truswell's goal for next month - increase iRating, get in a higher split - aim for another 4th position.

If any of these drivers don't race next race (May 2nd - 3rd) - should Truswell finish, he'll score, and they won't - promoting him up the order.

The thrilling bit is to see both what Round 2 has to offer - and what result that has on the championship!