The seventh round of the VLN endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring will start on Saturday, 28 September, the 45th ADAC Barbarossapreis. The organising MSC Sinzig is expecting about 175 cars to be on the grid for the race covering a four hour distance. A wind of change in the leading group will hereby be supplied amongst others through the comeback of the BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS in the GT3 class. Apart from the VLN race, two support series will deliver additional excitement for the fans. The historic race cars of the Dantuma NK GT & Touring Cars from the Netherlands will bring a revival of the good old times to the Grand Prix Circuit and a number of promising rookies, who may well celebrate victories in the top classes in a few years time, will be competing in the Formula Renault series. Entry all around the Nordschleife is free. Access to the paddocks and to the grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit will be granted for a family-friendly price of 15 euro per person. Young people up to 14 years have free entry. The race will be started exactly at 12:15hrs and the positions on the grid will previously be decided in the timed practice between 08:30 and 10:00hrs.
The BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS will celebrate a comeback to the Nordschleife here at the seventh VLN round and support the BMW family in the GT3 class. Dutchman Nick Catsburg who has gained a high reputation in the European sports car scenery will make his debut at the Nordschleife in the BMW Z4 GT3, together with Maxime Martin (Belgium). The sister car will be driven by Bas Leinders (Belgium) and Henri Moser (Switzerland). Last weekend, Marc VDS celebrated the team title in the Blancpain Endurance Serie and now finally wishes to also score the first VLN victory. In particular under difficult weather conditions, which happen quite frequently at the Eifel circuit, Martin has gained a lot of popularity during the past two years with the fans at the Nordschleife. There are currently only few drivers who are able to perform on the same level as the DTM test driver. The established BMW VLN teams, Uwe Alzen Automotive and Walkenhorst Motorsport powered by Dunlop, will also be at the start and wish to score the second BMW victory in 2013.
ROWE RACING, too, is aiming at another successful result. The team which is based in Bubenheim/ Germany celebrated a fantastic success at the 6h Race and is now close to keep up with Audi and Porsche who both have scored two wins so far. The spearhead of ROWE will be the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 with start number 7 and driven by Jan Seyffarth (Querfurt-Leimbach/ Germany) and Lance David Arnold (Duisburg/ Germany). The crew in the second ROWE-SLS with number 6 will be made up of Marko Hartung (Wallroda/ Germany) and ROWE Managing Director Michael Zehe (Flörsheim-Dalsheim/ Germany).
The winning team of the last race will be partly restructured. The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of the team Manthey-Racing will again be composed of Jochen Krumbach (Eschweiler/ Germany) and Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) and the driver trio will this time be completed by Marco Holzer (Lochau/ Germany). After its successful debut, the Team GT Corse has for the second time entered a Ferrari F458 in the GT3 class. The super sports car from Italy will be driven by Pierre Ehret (Tegernsee/ Germany) and Alexander Matschull (Bad Homburg/ Germany). After a break of one year, Jürgen Alzen (Betzdorf/ Germany) and Artur Deutgen (Spain) will also take part again. The experienced driver duo will compete in the spectacular Ford GT entered by H&R Spezialfedern GmbH & Co.
BMW and Porsche strongly represented, Opel being the third force in the VLN
The grid in the VLN endurance racing championship ranges from series production compact cars up to the most sophisticated race cars. The make with the greatest number of cars this season has been BMW with 52 automobiles on the average. Into second place of this VLN annual statistics comprising 28 car manufacturers follows Porsche with the average of 36 cars. Opel, supported by the Astra OPC Cup organised in 2013 for the first time, is in third position with an average of 20 cars in the six races completed so far.
Two support series will provide good entertainment
Additional racing action on the VLN Saturday at the 45th ADAC Barbarossapreis will be provided by not less than two support races. Since the 2013 season, the new ‚Formula Renault 1.6 Northern European Cup Junior’ provides a perfect platform for ambitious drivers to join racing in formula categories and will have its debut in Germany at the endurance racing championship. The two races are scheduled to take place on Saturday, 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. The Dantuma NK GT & Touring Cars series is a Dutch championship for historic GT and Touring Cars of the years 1966 to 1981. Amongst others the Ford Escort RS 2000, Porsche Carrera RSR, BMW 320 and Renault 5 Alpine Turbo race cars will attract a great deal of attention. The races will take place at 10:20 a.m. and at 05:30 p.m., also on the short version of the Grand Prix Circuit.
