The fans had to wait quite a long time until the VLN endurance racing championship will now be resumed. Almost two months have already past since the last round end of April. And the ADAC Zurich 24h Race, too, has already gone down in history since mid-May. The fights about positions in the “Green Hell” will now finally continue with the 44th Adenauer ADAC Simfy Trophy to take place on 22nd June. The starting grid of the event organised by the MSC Adenau e.V. im ADAC will figure more than 180 race cars – including standard production touring cars up to the most sophisticated GT3 race car. The programme includes four hours of exciting racing action at the most beautiful and demanding race track of the world. Entrance all around the Nordschleife is free. Admission to the paddocks and to the grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit will be granted at the family-friendly price of 15 euro per person. Young people under the age of 14 have free access. The value received will be to experience living motorsport. Spectators can watch the mechanics working on the cars in the pits just as the vivid hustle and bustle going on in the pit lane as long as the engines are stopped. A visit of the starting grid, too, is an excellent opportunity to experience live the crackling tension before the impressive grid of the VLN will take the start. The race will start at 12 o’clock exactly after the timed practice session scheduled for 08:30 to 1:00hrs.
The VLN endurance racing championship will now continue with a fantastic grid. Dream cars such as Aston Martin Vantage, Audi R8 LMS ultra, BMW Z4 GT3, Corvette C6, Ferrari F458, Ford GT, McLaren MP4, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 or Porsche 911 GT3 will dominate the action in the leading group. The main field includes sporting race cars which everyone is able to identify with. It is the mixture of professional and private racing which provides the fascination for the VLN fans since many years and this ten times per year.
In addition to the famous type specifications, the names of the top stars in the series will also make the hearts of all motor sport fans beat faster. The black and strong presentation of the two cars starting in the colours of VLN sponsor H&R are two of those. The steering wheel in the BMW Z4 GT3 will be shared between Uwe Alzen (Betzdorf/ Germany), Philipp Wlazik (Gladbeck/ Germany) and Alexandros Margaritis (Cologne), the Ford GT will be driven by the two endurance race experienced drivers Jürgen Alzen (Betzdorf/ Germany) and Artur Deutgen (Spain). Another VLN sponsor will be present with a big commitment. Entered by ROWE-Racing, Jan Seyffarth (Querfurt-Leimbach/ Germany) and Nico Bastian (Frankfurt/ Germany) will drive an SLS AMG GT3 and the sister car will be driven by Marko Hartung (Wallroda/ Germany) and Roland Rehfeld (Blankenfelde/ Germany) together with ROWE boss Michael Zehe (Flörsheim-Dalsheim/ Germany) who will complete the team. Audi will be represented by the Team Phoenix-Racing, well known from the DTM. Their drivers will be none other than Ferdinand and Joannes Stuck (both from Munich), the sons of Hans-Joachim Stuck (Ellmau), the legend in racing. The brothers will compete in an Audi R8 together with Luca Ludwig (Bornheim/ Germany) – the son of Klaus Ludwig (Bonn/ Germany), another famous son who, however, is a serious and competitive race driver himself, just as his two team mates. The Porsche teams, too, include some very strong cars. Falken-Motorsport has entered Martin Ragginger (Austria) and Sebastian Asch (Ammerbuch/ Germany) and the Frikadelli-Porsche will be driven by Patrick Huisman (Netherlands) with the support of Klaus Abbelen and Sabine Schmitz (both from Barweiler/ Germany). The team of Timbuli-Racing has brought additional know-how on board. The two nine-eleven will be driven by Marc Hennerici (Mayen/ Germany), Christopher Brück (Cologne), Norbert Siedler (Austria) and Marco Seefried (Wemding/ Germany). The 24 times VLN winner Marc Basseng (Neusalza Spremberg) will come for a guest start in the yellow Porsche.
The grid of this fourth round will traditionally include four different groups. The biggest group hereby will be the VLN Specials with 85 cars. The four different Cup classes with Opel, Porsche, Renault and Toyota come up to the total of 45 cars. The entry list also includes 40 close-to-series productions cars and 10 group H cars. With 20 cars, the new Opel Astra OPC Cup provides the class with the greatest number of competitors. This class includes a number of experiences endurance racing drivers and it will be exciting to see who will be in the fastest one as they are all driving in identical cars. The second strongest class will be the VLN series production cars up to 3000cc cylinder capacity with 18 cars, followed by SP9 (GT3) and SP7 (VLN Specials up to 4000 cc cylinder capacity) with 14 cars. The entry list figures the total of cars from 21 different car manufacturers and about 430 drivers with 24 different nationalities.
