05.07.2010

Jurek and Olivo win after catching up brilliantly

A literally hot battle in the “Green Hell”: Title holders Jannik Olivo and Elmar Jurek, both from Berlin, again gained a victory in the New Renault Clio Cup after a sweaty fifth round of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft at the Nürburgring. They finished into second position in the VLN category SP3, followed by irthe Renault rivals Henry Walkenhorst and Michael Schrey as well as Jürgen Peter and „Rennsemmel“.

Due to the high summer temperatures, utmost fitness was required from the drivers, teams and mechanical components at the Nürburgring. The temperatures in the cockpits were up to partly 65 to 70 degrees. Elmar Jurek and Jannik Olivo, just as many other competitors, nevertheless did not really seem to be much impressed by these conditions. The more laps they covered, the more they visibly achieved top form, although start driver Olivo was literally “steaming” in the Green Hell when, at the beginning of the race and in the first turn, Holger Goedicke as well as Dominik Brinkmann were pulling away. A damaged sensor had temporary slowed down the race driver from Berlin. He and Jurek were then brilliantly catching up and they were shown in the class lead when the race was stopped with the red flag 19 minutes before the scheduled race time. When it started to rain when Hans-Joachim Stuck had an accident in the section Aremberg. He suffered a concussion but fortunately no further obvious injuries as was reported later.

Bad luck again for Clio driver Brinker who set fastest lap time in practice amongst the Clio drivers and achieved second grid position in class SP3. Whereas at the beginning he was clearly leading the race, his Clio suffered an electric problem and the master baker had to stop the race. “That was not so good”, was the summary of the Ring-Racing driver later on and he added with a smile in his face: “The time of 9:29 was however good.”

The team of Henry Wlkenhorst and Michael Schrey into place two were enthusiastic about this fifth VLN round without “ifs” and “buts” – despite the felt 100 degrees in the cockpit. “The start was very exciting, it was very tight and close and I was only able to pull away in the last three laps of my turn. From then on, everything was running perfectly”, remembers Michael Schrey.

Disappointing running of the race in contrast for Schlaug driver Brinkmann who competed in the four hour race as solo driver and who showed an excellent performance. First he was in second place before he went into the lead after Brinker’s first unscheduled pit stop – until a too low oil pressure forced him, too, to come to the pits. Brinkmann finally finished into seventh position ahead of Holger Goedicke and Marc Uwe of Niesewand who had replaced Mathias Schläppi. The Schläppi team complained about a big loss of performance. Jacques Meyer showed an excellent performance but was then, too, slowed down after he went off the track and had to proceed to a pit stop as a consequence. He had crashed onto the guardrails just before the section Wehrseifen, damaged the front of his Clio and lost a lot of time due to the unscheduled pit stop.
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“The race is extremely hard with these temperatures”, was the point of Frank Lohmann alias “Hoppel”. „But it is simply super!“ added the Schlaug driver who finished into place four together with Peter Utsch, ahead of the trio Karl-Heinz Teichmann, Lutz Rühl and Michael Schneider. Into position six followed Markus Lüscher and Marco Muster from Switzerland. “Considering our situation, it was running very good”, was the happy summary of Heinz Lehmann of the Team Magic Racing.

The sixth VLN round will take place in two weeks times already, on 17th July. The 33rd RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen which will take place during the Nürburgring Performance Days will go over the distance of four hours. Renault MotorSport Co-ordinator Bernd Hütter invites to a get-together in the Renault Lounge and starting at 6 pm the evening before the race.

The VLN invites to the big summer party to take place in the Eifel village ‘Green Hell’ on the evening after the race. All the fans, marshals, officials and participants are cordially invited to enjoy the live music amongst others presented by Rage guitarist Victor Smolski who will play music with some friends and to spend a nice evening in relaxed atmosphere.

Hinweis: Der Text ist eine Mitteilung von "Renault". Der Inhalt spiegelt nicht die Meinung der Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring wieder.