Festive annual prizegiving ceremony in Koblenz

The current season of the VLN endurance racing championship was concluded with a formal ceremony on Saturday evening in the Koblenz Rhein-Mosel-Hall. The successful drivers of European’s most popular grass roots racing series received their well-deserved awards at the 2012 annual prizegiving ceremony, above all the new champions of the Team LMS Engineering Ullrich Andree (Cologne), Dominik Brinkmann (Dortmund/ Germany) and Christian Krognes (Norway).

Rolf Krimpmann, Chairman of the Stakeholder Board, welcomed more than 500 guests: “Another fantastic season with exciting races is now behind us. All the teams and their drivers have contributed to this great season and we wish to honour them tonight and hand over the trophies to them. On behalf of the VLN, I wish furthermore to thank all our sponsors, partners and all those who had a share in the success of the 2012 season.” Krimpmann added with a short view onto next year: “The season has also shown that we must further work on the endurance championship. We will try something new regarding safety and turn our special attention to keeping the costs in particular for the smaller teams on a low level. In this context, a special praise to the engagement of Opel and Toyota who have prepared and offer new race cars for popular race competitions.”

During the gala, the winners of the VLN series production cup, the Black-Falcon driver trio Carsten Knechtges (Mayen/ Germany), Tim Scheerbarth (Dormagen/ Germany) and Steve Jans (Luxembourg), as well as the winners of the VLN Junior Trophy, Brinkmann and Krognes, were also honoured. The emotional highlight, with standing ovations and a fantastic acknowledgement with applause of all the guests, was the appearance of the new champions Andree, Brinkmann and Krognes together with their team manager Andreas Lautner. The trophies were presented by VLN Board members Rolf Krimpmann, Dietmar Busch and Karl Mauer.

The evening event was accompanied by top-class show acts. The band Popmachine, the Abra Cappella group as well as Comedian Anton Klopotek provided brilliant entertainment between the presentations of awards. After the official part, all the motor sports people continued with a raucous party until the early morning hours.