LMS Racing’s Antti Buri took home his first win of the 2017 ADAC TCR Germany season this Sunday at the Nürburgring, as his competitors found themselves in all sorts of trouble during the 30-minute event.
The race start was followed with immediate drama, as the Schläppi Race-Tec Opel Astra of Dino Calcum made heavy contact with the inside guardrail on the approach to turn one, destroying the front end.
He had to avoid the car of pole-sitter Max Hofer, whose sudden movements on track forced Calcum to take evasive action. The German subsequently clipped the left front of championship leader Josh Files’ Honda, before impacting the barrier at the pit lane exit.
With debris from the incident was spread all over the start/finish line, the safety car neutralised the race, with Buri still leading.
Files managed to take his Civic back to the pit lane for repairs, but got lapped several times in the meantime. The Briton eventually made his way out again, but was out of serious contention for any points-paying positions.
After a 10-minute clean up, the race restarted, with Buri leading from Team Honda ADAC Sachsen’s Steve Kirsch. The latter would not let himself be shaken off by Buri and put on a fight for first place, eventually overtaking the Audi driver, who made a small mistake.
Kirsch’s lead did not last for long, as technical problems forced the German into the pit lane, eliminating his chances of a victory.
The final safety car of the day went on track just moments afterwards, assisting the recovery of GermanFLAVOURS Racing driver Sven Markert’s stricken Audi RS3.
With four minutes to go, racing got back underway again, with Buri getting off to a good restart, building an important gap to AC 1927 Mayen’s Sheldon van der Linde, who was running in second.
With a gap of three seconds to van der Linde, Buri took home his first win of the season. The pair finished ahead of HP Racing’s Harald Proczyk, who took his first podium of the year after having a close duel with Wolf-Power Racing’s Mike Halder on the final lap.
Racing One’s Niels Langeveld concluded another strong haul of points with fifth, ahead of Aust Motorsport’s Sandro Kaibach, who made it three Audis in the top six.
Target Competition’s Jürgen Schmarl and ADAC Honda Sachsen’s Moritz Oestreich were the best-placed of the Honda drivers in seventh and eighth respectively, whilst the Schläppi Race-Tec SEAT Léon TCR of Fabian Danz and the Lubner Motorsport Opel Astra of Jasmin Preisig completed the top ten.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 10 | Antti BURI |  |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 32:17.296 | 1:36.073 | 2 |
| 2 | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 3.081 | 1:36.116 | 3 |
| 3 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 4.278 | 1:35.840 | 5 |
| 4 | 7 | Mike HALDER |  |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 4.542 | 1:35.809 | 10 |
| 5 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD |  |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 5.408 | 1:36.768 | 9 |
| 6 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 6.148 | 1:36.590 | 6 |
| 7 | 11 | Jürgen SCHMARL | |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 17 | 7.155 | 1:36.752 | 11 |
| 8 | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 17 | 8.154 | 1:36.699 | 12 |
| 9 | 78 | Fabian DANZ |  |
Schläppi Race-Tec | SEAT León Cup Racer | 17 | 9.405 | 1:36.682 | 16 |
| 10 | 17 | Jasmin PREISIG | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 17 | 9.910 | 1:36.575 | 13 |
| 11 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 11.693 | 1:36.830 | 14 |
| 12 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE | |
Steibel Motorsport | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 15.160 | 1:36.648 | 18 |
| 13 | 39 | Florian THOMA | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 15.643 | 1:36.602 | 25 |
| 14 | 13 | Kai JORDAN | |
Racing One | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 16.025 | 1:36.971 | 23 |
| 15 | 98 | Tom LAUTENSCHLAGER | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 16.492 | 1:36.998 | 17 |
| 16 | 82 | Thomas KRAMWINKEL | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 17.596 | 1:36.902 | 35 |
| 17 | 26 | Toni WOLF | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 18.596 | 1:36.713 | 30 |
| 18 | 38 | Jason WOLFE |  |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 18.880 | 1:37.478 | 20 |
| 19 | 20 | Niko KANKKUNEN | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 20.563 | 1:37.972 | 24 |
| 20 | 54 | Simon REICHER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 20.793 | 1:37.114 | 31 |
| 21 | 84 | Maurits SANDBERG | |
Racing One 2 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 21.642 | 1:37.445 | 36 |
| 22 | 40 | Dillon KOSTER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 22.209 | 1:37.629 | 34 |
| 23 | 19 | Max HOFER | |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 17 | 23.248 | 1:36.310 | 1 |
| 24 | 23 | Sebastien STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 23.658 | 1:37.710 | 38 |
| 25 | 32 | Gustavo XAVIER | |
Young Driver Challenge | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 29.861 | 1:38.412 | 37 |
| 26 | 94 | Kris RICHARD | |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 17 | 30.852 | 1:36.786 | 21 |
| 27 | 9 | Stefan GOEDE | |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 36.764 | 1:37.763 | 32 |
| 28 | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
Niedertscheider MSP | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 44.530 | 1:36.844 | 15 |
| 29 | 99 | Tim ZIMMERMANN | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | + 1 LAP | 1:37.167 | 19 |
| 30 | 12 | Simon LARSSON |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 16 | + 1 LAP | 1:38.083 | 29 |
| R | 41 | Steve KIRSCH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 10 | DNF | 1:35.864 | 4 |
| R | 64 | Sven MARKERT | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:37.971 | 33 |
| R | 2 | Alex MORGAN |  |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 9 | DNF | 1:44.100 | 27 |
| R | 27 | José RODRIGUES |  |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 7 | DNF | 1:36.876 | 28 |
| R | 35 | Rudolf RHYN | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 6 | DNF | 1:37.006 | 22 |
| R | 1 | Josh FILES | |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | DNF | 1:37.114 | 8 |
| R | 66 | Ronny JOST | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 3 | DNF | 2:15.293 | 26 |
| R | 36 | Dino CALCUM | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | Opel Astra TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 7 |
| NS | 3 | Gosia RDEST |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | – | DNS | N/A | – |