Season launch 2014: Reload of the anniversary

About one year ago, the first race of the VLN endurance racing championship had to be cancelled due to heavy snowfall in the Eifel region. In 2014, the weather is more favourable and the ADAC Westfalen as traditional organiser of the launch of the season can look forward to this first VLN race. “The 60th ADAC Westfalenfahrt will take place”, says Horst Helmut Bube, Sporting Director of the regional ADAC club, happily. “We can thus this year finally celebrate the 50th anniversary of our traditional event.” And a glance on the provisional entry list reveals that the fans of this unique racing series at the Nordschleife can expect a superb motor sport event. All the drivers figuring on the list of ‘Who is Who’ in the European endurance racing scene will take part. The organiser expects about 180 cars, subdivided in 27 different vehicle classes, to start the race over the distance of four hours. Entrance all around the Nordschleife is free. An entrance fee of family-friendly 15 euros will become due for the access to the open grandstands at the Grand-Prix-Circuit and to the paddocks as well as to the starting grid. Young people under the age of 14 have free entry. Tickets will be available at the box-offices on-site. Further information around this most popular grass-roots series in Europe is available in the internet on the website www.nuerburgring-langstrecken-serie.de.

A number of well-known drivers and crews will figure amongst the top teams. Audi will be represented by the double DTM Champion team Phoenix Racing and the Busch twins. Uwe Alzen Automotive, Walkenhorst Motorsport powered by Dunlop and the BMW Sport Trophy Teams Marc VDS and Schubert will compete in the colours of BMW. the spectacular SLS AMG GT3 gullwing race vehicles of Mercedes-Benz will be entered by the teams of Black Falcon, Car Collection Motorsport and ROWE RACING. The make of Porsche will be represented by the outstanding teams of Falken Motorsports, Frikadelli Racing, the Haribo Racing Team and Manthey Racing. More than just a dash of colour in the list of entries will be Dörr Motorsport with the stylish McLaren MP4 12C, the Aston Martin Test Centre with an Aston Martin Vantage GT3, Jürgen Alzen Motorsport with the popular Ford GT3 race car, the Team racing one with the sporty Ferrari F 458 and the privateers Löhnert, Löhnert and Jäger with their huge Corvette C6. It would be gambling to define a true favourite right at the beginning of the season. Since a few years, the ‘balance of performance’, the classification of different car concepts on basis of defined parameters to provide a comparable level of performance, creates an equilibrium in the decision about the overall win. And the results in the recent past confirm that the technical commission, which is charged with this balance of performance classification, has been right. The diversity in the lists of participants is well reflected in the result lists.

Not less than five Cup classes will cause a lot of excitement in the new season of the VLN endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring. With start number 1 the current Champions Dirk and Tim Groneck (both from Melle/ Germany) will continue to compete in the Renault Clio Cup class. Furthermore, class for Porsche Cup vehicles, the Opel Astra OPC Cup as well as the TMG GT86 Cup will again be organised. As a new series, the BMW M235i Racing Cup will this year join the VLN. In preparation of the season, the delivery of the Cup touring cars from Munich has however been a little delayed due to the high number of orders – the cars are provided to the teams right before each race – so that the first VLN race will not count for this Cup. A number of teams has nevertheless submitted their entries for the 60th ADAC Westfalenfahrt. It is finally not only a question to complete some tests with the M235i but also to keep an eye on not wasting any points in the VLN Championship classification.

High-class motorsport is excepted from the specialized fans of the endurance racing championship in class V6 (VLN production cars up to 3,500 cc cylinder capacity). Not less than five car models, all close to standard configuration, will take up the challenge in this class: BMW M3, BMW Z4, Mercedes-Benz 350 SLK, Porsche 911 Carrera (type series 991) and Porsche Cayman. With a provisional number of 13 entries, class V6 seems to become the possible champion class 2014. More cars are only expected in the Opel Cup class as well as in class SP9 of GT3 race cars. The number of direct competitors is of great significance in the endurance racing championship as the team which has the greatest number of competitors in his class will also be allocated the greatest number of championship points.

The start of the 60th ADAC Westfalenfahrt will be given on Saturday, 29th March, at 12 o’clock exactly. The positions on the starting grid will be determined previously in the timed practice from 08:30 to 10:00hrs. On the previous day (28th March), a number of participants will participate in the Test and Set-Up Sessions from 08:30 to 14:00hrs on the Grand-Prix-Circuit at between 16:00 and 18:00hrs on the 24.358 kilometres long combination of the short version and the Nordschleife to be perfectly prepared for the VLN season. A summary of the opening round will be broadcasted in channel Sport1 on 5th April at 16:00hrs, with reruns transmitted on Sport1+.