It was a race reminiscent of the season of the No. 44 Fischer Motorsport Porsche. The team out of Leipzig, Germany didn’t win the race, but kept it together and showed consistency to earn third place in Saturday’s Virginia Sports Car Grand Prix, which was enough to take the 2024 Sprint Cup championship in GT PRO class.
Drivers Stephen Nobes and Pascal Theis teamed up to lead 26 laps, but did not mind settling for third in the end, as it was enough for them to earn the team’s first-ever championship.
Starting from fourth place, Stephen Nobes took the opening stints in the race and the team decided to keep the Brit from Portsmouth in the car when the race’s lone full-course yellow came out shortly after the one-hour mark.
Later on, after completing the mandatory driver swap pit stop, Theis took over and brought home a third-place podium finish for the team - enough to capture the 2024 VSCA Sprint Cup championship by a margin of 179 points of runners-up #69 North Sim Racing Porsche.
VIR race winner #992 DS Racing eSports Porsche takes third place in the final Sprint Cup standings, 180 points back, while the #151 World Of SimRacing Team BMW takes fourth, 189 points behind.
The championship winners captured four top-five finishes and a perfect five top-ten finishes in five starts, though the #44 Porsche did not accomplish a win this season, proving that consistency is just as important to win titles.
After the race #44 Porsche team-mates Stephen Nobes, Daniel Gruber and Jay Van Meppelen were available for a championship interview:
Stephen Nobes: “It’s amazing to win the Sprint Cup! For myself, I have always been an open wheel racer before I got into VSCA. Skip Barber and Formula Ford was where it was at for me, with some decent results over the years in official races and the UKI Racing League. I had done some GT racing, including endurance events, but never made it my primary focus, before entering VSCA with Fischer Motorsport.”
“I’ll say this, the transition was not easy. Particularly with braking. Changing habits with having to trail brake much more in gt cars was something that took a lot of time!”
“For the team it’s a great achievement. Particularly as we have had a lot of driver changes over the last couple of years. So finding stability in the team hasn’t been optimal. However, we have now got a great group of drivers that are all focused on the same goals each race.”
“The key ingredient I feel, to win the Sprint Cup and in fact probably most championships is to keep things clean, have good pace and don’t get into trouble. The full course yellows are obviously a big part of VSCA. So it’s all about being there at the end of the race, to have a chance of a good result.”
Daniel Gruber: “The most challenging part was the first Sprint Cup race at Long Beach, especially for me, since I had an incident with the car relatively early and demolished the chances for a good result. That really hurt us at the start of the Sprint Cup season. But after that, we were always able to finish in the top five, so we, and especially I, learned from that mistake.”
Nobes: “There’s been so many challenging times in this championship. The drivers are very competitive and take things super seriously. Often the greatest challenge is making sure you pit at an optimal time in the race. Give yourself good track position and be there for the fight at the end of the race.”
“This is my first season in VSCA, obviously. And my first year driving for the team. To come out and win the Sprint Cup on the first go feels absolutely amazing. It's everybody’s first championship on the entry, so it really means a lot for all of us.”
“I think the most important aspect for us this Sprint Cup season was consistency. While we were not able to win a race, we were always able to stay on track and be consistent.”
Jay Van Meppelen: “This is my third season in VSCA and I’m normally only running the Endurance Cup rounds, so for me personally, it’s a big accomplishment, even though I only drove in that one Sprint Cup race. But for the team, I think it shows that we have a well rounded team of like minded dependable, quick and safe drivers.”
“Luck plays a huge part in racing, but you also make your own luck. I can’t remember who said that but the first key ingredient was to stay out of trouble which means avoiding unnecessary risk taking. The second one was to stay out of the pit lane as much as possible by not taking any penalties. Using these two mindsets plus some luck allowed us to be near the front for most of the races.”
Nobes: “It’s nice to win the trophy for sure, but for us, our entire focus is now on the overall championship. We’re still in the lead there, I believe, so the job is not done. But tonight we’re going to celebrate a little, that’s for sure. Getting that trophy is awesome. I have a spot ready in my cabinet that currently holds other trophies for karting, pool and now the VSCA Sprint Cup!”
“I just want to thank everyone at Fischer Motorsport, for their support over the last couple of years, through all the highs and lows of racing.”
Van Meppelen: “I have no idea yet how we’re going to celebrate this. Maybe I’ll go buy some new pedals? Maybe I’ll go take a trip to Europe to meet with the rest of the team, who are based in Europe? I’ll probably just relish it, and start prepping for the next race and the next season.”
Gruber: “I think we’re going to go out tonight and have some beers and celebrate at a bar or something. I hope they have some German beer around here somewhere (laughing).
Related Links