The endurance racing championship picks up speed

The VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring had a splendid start into the new season last weekend, to be continued on Saturday, 14th April, with the 37th DMV 4 Hour Race. The organising club “Renngemeinschaft Düren” has received more than 190 entries and the starting grid promises excitement and a top-class motor sport event. Marc Basseng (Neusalza Spremberg/ Germany), Claudia Hürtgen (Aachen/ Germany), Christian Mamerow (Castrop-Rauxel/ Germany) and Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg/ Germany) will make their very personal debut in the ‘Green Hell’ for the 2012 season and will for the first time this year start in a race at the most beautiful track of the world. Entrance all around the Nordschleife is free. Access to the open grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit, to the paddocks as well as to the starting grid will be granted at the family-friendly price of 15 euros per person. Children up to 14 years old are free. Tickets will be available on-site at the cash boxes,

The endurance racing championship provides emotional moments ten times a year. For the 28 years old Benedikt from Aachen who takes up his position at the section Brünnchen since more than six years at almost all of the VLN events, the information lap before the race represents the highlight at each race: “Every time again, this is a very special moment. There is silence all around you, only from time to time may you hear some people whispering. From the section ‘Hohe Acht’, you are then able to hear the race cars and after a few more seconds the fantastic race cars are racing past you just before twelve o’clock. The drivers are still relaxed, some are waving to the many fans at the section ‘Brünnchen’. That will of course change about ten minutes later when they are fighting on the track for each millimetre.”

Amongst those top drivers are definitely the new drivers in the two BMW Z4 GT3 of the team Schubert Motorsport. After the much celebrated victory of the team from Oschersleben at the opening round, Uwe Alzen (Betzdorf/ Germany) will now start in a team with the promising youngster Nico Bastian (Frankfurt/ Germany) and Hürtgen with Dominik Schwager (Eisenhofen/ Germany). The driver duo will furthermore be supported by Dirk Adorf (Michelbach/ Germany) who did not have the chance to race at the first championship round due to the suspension of the race. Long-distance race expert Jochen Krumbach (Eschweiler/ Germany) will share the cockpit of the Porsche 911 GT3 R entered by Manthey-Racing with Lieb. The Porsche works driver scored eleven victories in the last years and is considered to be one of the fastest race drivers at the Nordschleife. This group also includes 22 times winner Basseng who completes the team of Phoenix-Racing in an Audi R8 LMS ultra with drivers Marcel Fässler (Switzerland) and Andrea Piccini (Italy). Christian Mamerow has this year joined the Audi family and will compete in his first race in this super sports car prepared in Ingolstadt together with Armin Hahne (Wimbach/ Germany) and Christer Jöns (Ingelheim/ Germany). A new car will provide a change in the top group. The new team Tin Tag Racing will start in the endurance racing championship for the first time with a Ferrari F458. The class of VLN Specials up to 6,250 cc cylinder capacity, in which the two drivers Christian Kohlhaas (Andernach/ German) and Alexander Matschull (Bad Homburg/ Germany) compete, will be full of variety. In addition to the Italian sports car, amongst others the very competitive Vantage of the Aston Martin Test Center at the Nürburgring, the factory entered Lexus LF-A, the privately entered Lexus IS-F with Uwe Kleen (Boxberg/ Germany) and Klaus Völker (Haltern/ Germany) and the Hyundai Genesis of Alexander Köppen (Bitburg/ Germany) as well as Jürgen and Peter Schumann (both from Saarbrücken/ Germany) will be at the start

In addition to the GT3 class SP9 with more than 20 cars at the 37th DMV 4 Hour Race, the classes Cup3 for the RENAULT CLIO Cup Speed Trophy, classes SP3 and SP3T (VLN Specials up to 2,000 cc cylinder capacity with and without turbo charger) as well as V6 (VLN standard production cars up to 3,500 cc capacity), each with more than 15 cars, will figure the greatest numbers of participants. In accordance with the points table applied in the endurance racing championship, the drivers in these classes will collect the greatest numbers of championship points. A one hour summary of the race will be broadcasted in channel Sport1 on 18th April at 17:30hrs.