April 2nd was the start of the 2016 VLN season at the Nurburgring, and the first of a handful of races for SCG003c around the circuit nicknamed “the green hell” in preparation for the 24HR race in late May. Jeff, the team’s lone American pilot, was slated to qualify the car and ran the quickest lap of all three drivers in just one flying lap. Unfortunately his team mate driving after him had a mistake and spun, contacting two walls and damaging the car. He was able to make it back to pit lane and qualify himself for the race, but Jeff’s lap time would stand for the car in second position at the time. Near the end of qualifying, many cars had put on new tires, and given it another shot when the track was completely dry, so SCG003 would start 24th of 100+ cars. “After my lap in qualifying and hearing of the incident, I was just grateful to be able to make the start of the race 2 hours later, the team did an incredible job changing 2 corners of the car and re-aligning it so it was race ready” said Jeff.
Fortunately they made the start of the race, but unfortunately it was beyond pit lane closing, so #702 SCG003c would start from the pit lane after the first wave of cars took the green, which meant 66th position after the green flag. Jeff left pit lane in a heap of smoke from the burnout leaving the line, and quickly ran times the front runners were doing while making his way through slower traffic. After 1.5 hours, Jeff was up to 24th spot before he had to pit early after a misfire developed within the engine. “it’s a bummer because as we were making progress up the field today, we had a hiccup that sent us back down the order in my stint, and my team mates” explained Jeff.
SCG003c was retired before the end of the race with technical issues stifling the cars progress in VLN1, however shining moments came through in the first race of the year showing promise for this season and the VLN Qualifying race this weekend, April 16th.
Click one of my partners below for a POV of Qualifying for VLN 1 aboard out SCG003c, courtesy of GoPro:
We would like to thank our partners:
Lightspeed Racing
TNVC Inc.
Hammer Nutrition
Sparco USA
GoPro
MSTR
