13.-15. Mai 2022 · 12h Race Mülsen

We arrived in Mülsen on Friday morning and spent the whole day tuning the kart for the track. We were very optimistic on Friday for the race on Saturday, because we were able to stay in the top 3 times in practice.

Unfortunately, our optimism and joy did not last long, because there was a special feature in the qualifying in Mülsen. The qualifying did not follow the usual principle of the faster the better the starting position. This time, all the drivers from the respective classes had to make a 100-metre run to their kart at the same time and once there, the mechanics had to change both front tyres.

Unfortunately, this didn't go well for us, because although I was quick at the kart, one of the front tires jammed and the change took too long as a result. And as if that wasn't enough, we were also disqualified for not attaching a nut to the left front tire. So it was clear that we would start from the very back of our class on Saturday, which meant P20 out of a total of 30.

I went to bed a little depressed in the evening, but I wasn't too worried because our kart was running top and I had a good gut feeling for the race.

The race start was different, just like the qualifying, because we didn't do a flying start but a Le Mans start. Since I'd only been to a Le Mans start once before, I was naturally very nervous. However, this excitement usually disappears the moment I put on my helmet.

Now we went to the starting grid and the drivers gathered. Then the green flag was waved and the race started. I ran over, jumped into the kart and just gave it full throttle. So now there were 30 karts going into the first corner side by side at the same time. I had a great start and was in P8 right after the first corner.

After the start, I continuously fought my way forward every lap until I was leading the field after about 7 laps.

I was able to lead the field for about 20-25 laps until I was involved in a racing accident. Another rider hit my right rear rim on the straight, so I spun and was standing on the grass. I was able to continue very quickly, but I lost about 15 seconds, which I could only partially recover by the end of my stint.

My teammate drove after me and unfortunately the brake linkage broke twice for inexplicable reasons. Of course, we were all very focused on making up the lost time, which worked out quite well because we were still among the fastest in the field.

On Sunday I was again the starting driver and the last hours of the 12h race of Mülsen were driven.

The start on Sunday went great for me again, as I melted into the kart and became faster and faster. So it happened that I led the field after a few laps, just like on Saturday.

Apart from that Sunday was quite unspectacular as we were fast but had to make up a lot of time as we were still 5 laps behind P1 due to the material damage.

At the end of the 12h of Mülsen we finished the race on P6 in the Junior classification and on P5 in the Trophy.

The final result was unfortunately very sobering, as we had hoped for much more from the weekend. However, such things are part of motorsport.

Now we had to focus on Templin to make up for the lost points.