VSCAracing.com: Hello Jan and Nils! Thanks for taking the time for this interview today! And Congratulations on winning Road America and the 2022 VSCA Sprint Cup! Have you had a chance to celebrate a bit since the race?

Nils: Yeah, thank you first of all, it’s a pleasure to be here. To celebrate? Not really yet for my part, as I’m currently in the middle of exams. But I think after the final I will celebrate it, the way it should be.

Jan: Yeah, thank you for having us. I didn’t really have time to celebrate, because immediately after the race I went on holidays and I didn’t really have the time to realize that we just won the Sprint Cup.

So, exams and holidays – sounds like you got both extremes covered (laughing).

Nils: (Laughing) Yeah it’s quite busy, actually.

Well, we certainly wish you best of luck with the exams, Nils.

Nils: Thank you.

Before we go on, allow me to recap your run in the 2022 VSCA Sprint Cup quickly.

Your championship run was impressive, and it’s probably fair to say nobody could have predicted the way the Sprint Cup finale turned out, with all the drama. But there were several challenges you had to overcome on your way to winning the Sprint Cup.

Of course, the VSCA Sprint Cup consisted of four races this year, as an in-series championship of the VSCA SportsCar Championship.

You won the first race at Laguna Seca after the No. 10 Race4CAT Motorsport Dallara and No. 79 Champion Motorsports Dallara both got a post-race penalty and because of the win you took the championship lead.

In the second race at Mid-Ohio, you came into the race with the momentum of winning at Laguna Seca, but you had some trouble with a late incident and got a post-race penalty. You ended up tenth in that race and lost the championship lead, dropped to fourth in the VSCA Sprint Cup standings, twenty points back.

In the third race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park you came back strong and had an amazing start from the pole and dominated early, creating a huge lead. But after the caution, you were involved in an incident with the two GT3 championship leaders and in the end you finished eighth, two laps down.

Meanwhile the No. 43 Dallara of Torque Freak Racing won at Mid-Ohio and finished third at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. That put you into second place in the championship, tied with the No. 79 Dallara of Champion Motorsports, 90 points behind entering into the weekend at Road America.

So here’s my question, for both of you: Looking back at these four races, this seems like quite a ride. What were these four races like for you? Did you always have the confidence you’d win the Sprint Cup?

Nils: No, never. When we came to Road America, the last race, we never aimed to win the Sprint Cup. Our goal was to get the most points possible for the overall championship.

The whole Sprint Cup season was a bit like a roller coaster. We started with the win at Laguna Seca, through the post-race penalties but then dropped off so bad with P10 at Mid-Ohio, where we really had trouble with the track, the setup, the temperatures.

And Mosport didn’t even go better, with P8 where we just had bad luck in the final stint, I guess. And yeah, we never thought of winning this.

Jan: No, because of the two bad races I didn’t think of winning the Sprint Cup. I think Nils started the race at Road America and I think when we changed drivers and I got in the car, somewhere through my first stint, he just mentioned if we can keep this up, we can win the Sprint Cup. And I was like ‘What!? Really?’. I really didn’t have it on my radar, that we could win there and the Sprint Cup.

V: The No. 43 Dallara from Torque Freak Racing and No. 79 Dallara from Champion Motorsports were your closest competitors in the Sprint Cup this year, points-wise. How tough was it mentally for you guys, to deal with the pressure in this championship battle?

Jan: Yeah, the pressure was always there. Most guys aren’t slow, but very, very fast. We just had some bad luck in the Sprint Cup races that didn’t go well for us. Also, it didn’t go as well for them. But the pressure was always there.

And at Road America, we saw them crashing into turn one. That was a small relief but we knew it wasn’t over, we have to finish. Some famous driver said “To finish first, you have to first finish.”. That was always my mindset.

V: When you’re inside the car in those races, was the championship and championship points on your mind in that moment or what was that like? Were you totally focused on the on-track action at that moment?

Nils: In that moment, we never thought about any championship standings, because you’re just on the track. You just want to survive the traffic. You want to finish. And then you see where you finished and how many points you get and see what position you are in the championship.

But during the time on track, we never thought about the championship.

V: When we’re talking about on the track: What was your favorite battle on the track that you remember this year, specifically in the four sprint races?

Nils: I think for me it was my final stint at Laguna Seca, because we had a late full-course yellow and I was in the car and we had about 15 minutes to go and I was sixth or seventh, something like that.

And on the final lap I had the battle for the podium and won it through a mistake by the guy in P3 and then post-race we even got the win. So, that was really crazy.

V: I seem to remember there was an incident on the final lap in the corkscrew. Is that right?

Nils: Yes, it was P3 in the corkscrew. He thought he needs to get past the GT3, where I never would have gotten him. I have to say it was just dumb from my point of view (laughing). And yeah, we just got the podium and the win then afterwards.

V: Yeah, so I guess it’s true: In racing anything can happen, right.

V: Coming back to the Sprint Cup finale at Road America: What was your mindset after the championship leaders, the No. 43 of Torque Freak Racing crashed out of the race? Were you aware of what had happened?

Jan: I think it was right after a full-course yellow.

Nils: Yeah, I think you were in the car.

Jan: Yeah, we just switched drivers. I was in the car. And it was right after the green flag. The first corner after a full-course yellow is always tricky. Everyone wants to get ahead. Everybody wants to go two-wide. I was just lifting early, to not have any incident, because we just wanted to finish well or ahead of the other contenders.

Driving the No. 7 Dallara, Jan Vollmers (left) and Nils Hundehege (right) earned 1180 points, two wins, two top-fives and four top-tens to win the 2022 VSCA Sprint Cup

Then I saw the contact. I saw the smoke, the cars going off. At first, we didn’t really realize that it was a contender. I think after one or two laps we noticed that it was Torque Freak Racing. Then we started to do some calculations.

We got the regulations out again. We checked how many points we could get and Nils started to do the calculations and sometime after that we realized ‘Hey, if we keep this up, we can actually win this!’.

Nils: Yeah, it was a really crazy restart. I think when the green flag went out we were sixth and after five laps or so after the restart, Jan was second again. And at that point I looked at the race standings and I saw many teams that were close to us in the Sprint Cup standings were actually behind us.

So, like Jan said, I made up an Excel sheet and typed in all points and then I suddenly had to say to Jan: ‘No pressure, but we’re currently leading the Sprint Cup as well.’ (laughing). Then Jan showed some awesome pace in his stint.

And the only critical thing was to get to the finish without an extra stop for some fuel. But that worked out well. So yeah, it was a really good race.

V: What did you guys think when you saw the No. 79 with Thomas Fisher running in second place, behind you? I think there was a gap, maybe like ten seconds or something like that? But he was second behind you guys and obviously, going into the race, you had the same points.

Jan: At that moment, I was just thinking about the fuel. Because the full-course yellow helped and we didn’t need that much fuel to get to the end. We also had the good luck that we saved in the first two stints. We saved around one and a half laps of fuel. So we had to pit one lap later than the competition.

I was just focusing on my fuel and the relative to not let them catch up and to not burn too much fuel, so that I can make it to the end without a splash and dash. So yeah, my concern was really only the fuel, just getting to the end without getting to the pits again.

Well, it worked out perfectly for you guys. So you ended up winning the Sprint Cup. And of course that means you’ll be receiving the VSCA Sprint Cup trophy on behalf of your team after the season finale at Road Atlanta. Do you have any plans yet of where you’re going to put that trophy?

Nils: No, not yet. Because this is actually the first trophy we won.

V: Oh, really!?

Nils: Yeah, I think I just won a medal or something (laughing), but no trophy. So, I will have to find a nice spot for that. But I think I will find it.

Jan: I will have to do paper, rock scissors to know who will get the trophy. I already have a small trophy from another private league; a small Nordschleife league. Maybe it will go there. But I’m not sure yet. I think it won’t fit into my cabin.

Nils: That’s because it’s too big!

Jan: Yeah, from the pictures it looks very big. I don’t know if it will fit there.

V: I don’t remember exactly, I think it’s 19 inches, 30 cm. (sic: actually it is around 12 inches, 30 cm)

Jan: Ah yeah, that could fit. Maybe (laughing). I’m not sure.

V: Obviously, the VSCA season isn’t completely over yet, with still one more endurance race, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October. You’ve got a great chance to win the Endurance Cup and overall SportsCar Championship as well. What would that mean to you?

Jan: Yeah, to win in a new league, the inaugural season; to win two, maybe three championships – we don’t know it yet – that would be a very big honor. But I’m not really thinking about that right now. I know the week before Petit Le Mans I will be driving only Road Atlanta, nothing else to be prepared for this race. Because anything can happen.

But if we can keep our pace up and drive clean and know where to overtake and where not to overtake then I think our chances will be or could be high.

V: Are you planning to run the ten-hour race with just the two of you or are you going to add a third driver?

Jan: I think we’ll be running it with two drivers. We also did it with two drivers last year. And we have our sister car in the GT3 class, that is also joining the grid for that race. So, we have two drivers less to pick from. And we will probably run it together, Nils and I, because we just trust each other. We know what each other’s strengths and weaknesses are. There is just a lot of trust between us.

Well, thank you guys! Thank you for this interview. I really appreciate it. It was nice to catch up with you. I wish you best of luck and I’m looking forward to seeing you at Road Atlanta!

Jan: Yes, thank you for having us and we’re also looking forward to Petit Le Mans.

Nils: Thank you!

Related Links

• Official VSCA Sprint Cup Standings