Darren Turner returned to the mighty Nürburging Nordschleife circuit in Germany last Saturday, as the multiple championship-winning GT ace re-joined the Dörr brothers Ben and Phil in their family-run team’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for NLS8, the latest round of the track-based Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie.
Dörr Motorsport is running a development programme for the Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli on the 15.7-mile circuit during 2023, and with his vast experience, (including three class victories in the Nürburgring 24 Hours) Turner has played a key role in this programme while also assisting the Dörr brothers in their own development and identifying performance paths for the project to pursue.
“It was great to be back with the team and to be driving the Vantage GT3 on the old track again,” said Turner. “It’s always a massive pleasure to race on this circuit, especially in a GT car. This is an interesting project to be a part of, and Dörr Motorsport is a great team to be doing it with.”
“The last time I raced with the team was in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, back in May, and both the brothers’ and the team’s understanding of the Vantage GT3 have come on in leaps and bounds since then. The programme is still in its infancy in terms of where we are with tyre development, but so much has been learned this year that hopefully by the beginning of next year we will have got the next level of performance in place.”
Turner was already in Germany in his role as Aston Martin’s Performance Development Driver, which meant he was able to drive alongside Ben and Phil in Friday’s test, where the team also fitted and shook down a new gearbox for the weekend. The team qualified fourth for the race in the 90-minute session, which began in damp conditions and dried throughout. The result was the best starting slot the trio had shared in Turner’s three outings in the car so far.
“We rotated through all three drivers during qualifying,” explained Turner. “Phil went out first, then me, then Ben, but Phil was the only one who got in a lap free of Code 60s and Code 120s, and he put a really good lap together, which set us on the right path.”
Phil Dörr also took the start of the four-hour race and began the event on a different tyre compound. “Pirelli wanted us to try a new specification of tyre,” explained Turner, “and during that first stint, we weren’t sure whether we were in the right window with it, so when Phil came in to change over, we tried it again on a fresh set for the second stint.”
Turner took over from Phil with the car in fifth position. “He did a cracking job in his stint, which made my job easier,” said Turner. “By the time I got in the car though, the field had spread out so there wasn’t much in the way of wheel-to-wheel action. That being said, my stint was a whole lot of fun. Neveretheless, it was also clear that the tyres we were trying out were not the fastest, so we switched to a version we had used in previous races for Ben’s stint.”
Ben was immediately on the pace when he left the pits and put on a charge that saw him pass the rival Aston Martin in the class to recover fourth place. Not long after that, that rival Vantage crashed, leaving Dörr Motorsport in a safe position to bring the car home. This, though, is easier said than done at the Nürburgring…
“Ben was brilliant, particularly when it started raining,” explained Turner. “The track became treacherous, but he put in a blinding shift and never put a wheel wrong – not only that, but he was the fastest car on the track when the conditions were at their worst.”
Fourth place was a sound result from a strong afternoon’s work, and added to that was the fact that Phil managed to run the same compound that Ben did in his final stint, allowing for a raft of comprehensive back-to-back test data for the team to take away with it.
“It was mission accomplished for us, and while we didn’t quite manage a podium,” explained Turner, “what we achieved and took away from the day was actually worth more than that anyway.”
Another podium from 2023 is still up for grabs however as Turner returns to Dörr Motorsport and the Nürburgring for the series finale on the 7 October, in less that two week’s time.
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