Motorsport: Good debut for Jasmin Preisig

As reported a week ago, the Appenzeller had to wait a long time for her first start with the Opel Astra TCR and was then nevertheless surprised to get her turn at the fifth round of the ADAC TCR Germany at the Nürburgring at short notice. So she could only get used to her new machine in the two half-hour practice sessions. Her times in qualifying were then only good enough for 18th on the grid for both races, but given the density of performance, not much more was to be expected. In fact, 20 of the 21 competitors, among whom she was the first woman, were within 864-thousandths in qualifying! In both races, Preisig experienced the full rigors of touring car racing, as she did two years ago in the Scirocco Cup.

Nothing was given to her, her new Opel Astra received a few scratches through more or less light contact. But with two 13th places, each only a few seconds behind the points-earning top ten, the Swiss could be satisfied. "Considering that, unlike all my opponents, I was sitting in a TCR car for the first time (two-liter turbo front-wheel drive car with about 330 hp.), I felt that was quite a good performance," she thinks. Especially since she drove the same lap times as the top 5 from the middle to the end of Race 2.

Next outing at the TCR finale in Hockenheim
Meanwhile, their experienced Opel colleagues Javier Villa (E) and Pierre-Yves Corthals (B) immediately finished second and third in the debut of the Astra TCR in Germany, while their compatriot Pascal Eberle drove his Seat Leon TCR to a good fifth place in the first race.

Preisig will forego the next race in Zandvoort in favor of test drives to make up for the missing training. With a little more practice, she then hopes to score her first points on the first weekend in October at the ADAC GT finale in Hockenheim. The Swiss fans will certainly be keeping their fingers crossed for her there.

www.adac-motorsport.de
www.jasminpreisig.ch
Photos: Archive