The entry list for the second highlight of the VLN endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring, the race in the ‘Green Hell’, is fantastic. The organising MSC Ruhrblitz Bochum has received more than 190 entries for the 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen ‘um die Pokal der Opel-Werke Bochum’. This demonstrates once more the high level of the endurance racing championship and its status as the most popular club sporting series in Europe. What, however, would be a full grid without an appropriate quality? This is what the VLN fans do not need to worry about. More than three dozens of top cars in the leading group and a great number of ambitious privateers in the wide middle field of the series will provide genuine and living motor sport. The race over the distance of six hours will be started on 27th of August at 12 o’clock exactly. The positions on the grid will be decided during the time practice between 08:30 and 10:00hrs. Entrance is free all around the Nordschleife. Tickets giving access to the paddocks and to the open grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit are available at the cash boxes for a family-friendly price of 12 Euros. A 30 minutes summary of the race will be shown in channel Sport 1 on 2nd September at 16:00hrs.
The Nürburgring Nordschleife fascinates all race drivers, starting from the ambitious privateer up to the experienced and professional race driver – hardly anyone can withstand the magical attraction of this 24.369 kilometres long tarmac track in the Eifel region. More than 500 drivers from Germany, Europe and the rest of the world will take part in the second 6h race of the 2011 season and finally celebrate the fastest ones. There will not only be big fights for the win at the end of the race day but also for the may cups in the more than 30 different classes organised within the endurance racing championship.
ROWE-Racing will take the start with visible pride. Roland Rehfeld (Blankenfelde/ Germany) and Alexander Roloff (Berlin/ Germany), who dominated at the last race together with Michael Zehe (Floersheim/ Germany), will this time be supported by Thomas Jäger (Munich/ Germany) for the Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen and aim at another result on the podium. The sister car will be driven by Zehe and his team mates Hubert Haupt, Klaus Rader (both from Munich/ Germany) and Marco Schelp (Berlin/ Germany). The competition is incredibly high even in the own camp: Black Falcon, Mamerow-Racing and Horn-Motorsport are prepared to take up the challenge for the win.
Audi will be represented amongst others by the experienced sports car drivers Christopher Haase (Kulmbach/ Germany), Christopher Mies (Heiligenhaus/ Germany), Marc Basseng (Leutenbach/ Germany) and Frank Stippler (Bad Münstereifel/ Germany) in two R8 LMS entered by Phoenix-Racing. The super sports car from Ingolstadt has recently gained its 100th victory in Asia which shall be followed by the 101st success at the Nordschleife. The spearhead of the Porsche teams has been entered by Manthey-Racing. The crew which is based in Meuspath near the Nürburgring is still waiting for their first victory of the season with the GT3-911. The only success for the team in the current season was scored with the Hybrid Porsche at the fourth round. For the 6h race, the green yellow 911 GT3 R will be driven by Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg/ Germany), Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) and Arno Klasen (Karlshausen/ Germany) who finally wishes to celebrate his 25th overall victory. The two Porsche teams of Pinta- and Frikadelli-Racing have also already demonstrated their performance but their statistic figures of the season do neither include a victory so far.
The class of VLN Specials up to 2600 cc cylinder capacity and turbo engines (SP4T) will feature an interesting addition for the Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen. Whilst there will only be four cars at the start, they all figure totally different concepts. The successful Ford Focus entered by the ‘FH Köln Motorsport powered by Ford’ will meet the Audi TT RS of the team Raeder-Motorsport who have contracted a top team with drivers Frank Biela (Monaco), Christian Hohenadel (Illingen/ Germany) and Michael Ammermüller (Pocking/ Germany). Diversion will also be provided by Martin Müller (Griesheim/ Germany) and Ulli Andreé in the Volvo C30 T5 as well as by the four Italians Paolo Previati, Giuseppe Tobia, Matteo Cocovi and Sabina Raviglione in a Renault Clio NZW. Speaking of Clio: With almost 30 cars, the Cup class with the same name and organised by VLN partner Renault will again be the strongest class in the field at the seventh round of the season.
At the race for the cups supplied by the Bochum plant of Opel, the race cars with the Opel Blitz are of course particularly in the focus. The variety of Opel race cars ranges from the Opel Manta well advanced in years up to the dynamic Opel Astra OPC in the class of VLN Specials up to 2000 cc cylinder capacity with turbo engine. The crews in both cars include Opel Sports Director Volker Strycek (Dehrn/ Germany). He will share the cockpit of the Manta with Olaf Beckmann (Oststeinbek/ Germany) and Peter Hass (Hofheim/ Germany) and the one of the Astra entered by Kissling-Motorsport with Hannu Luostarinen and Julius Nieminen, both from Finland.
