Bright sunshine, spring temperatures, enthusiastic fans around the Nürburgring Nordschleife and finally three makes on the podium – the season kick-off of the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring fulfilled all the expectations. At the end of the four hours race, Marc Basseng (Rosenbach/ Germany), Frank Stippler (Bad Münstereifel/ Germany) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) celebrated a victory in the Audi R8 LMS ultra of the team Phoenix Racing at the first of ten championship races in 2014. When the chequered flag came out, the driver trio had an advance of 1:55.640 minutes head of Andreas Simonsen (Sweden), Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) and Lance David Arnold (Duisburg/ Germany) in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 entered by Black Falcon in second place. The podium was completed by Jens Klingmann (Leimen/ Germany), Dominik Baumann (Austria) and Martin Tomczyk (Kolbenmoor/ Germany) who drive a BMW Z4 GT3 of BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert. A 30 minutes summary of the race will be b broadcasted in channel Sport1 on 5th April at 16:00hrs with repetitions in Sport1+.
„That was a brilliant start“, said Basseng happily after the race. This was the 26th VLN win for the Audi driver and he has thus moved up into second position of the winners’ statistics. Basseng misses two more wins in order to catch up with the 28 first places scored by Jürgen Alzen, Olaf Manthey and the already passed away Ulli Richter. The Audi driver trio dominated the action in the leading group for long section. The team started from pole position and Stippler managed to remain in the lead which was also superiorly defended by Vanthoor in his stint. Basseng experienced a moment of choc after a collision with a car to be lapped. The team advanced the final pit stop to proceed to a short check of the R8 LMS ultra. Uwe Alzen (Betzdorf/ Germany) and Philipp Wlazik (Gladbeck/ Germany) went into the lead with the BMW Z4 GT3 entered by H&R Spezialfedern until they had to stop the race due to a damaged tyre. The road was then clear for the first victory at an opening round in the history of the endurance racing championship scored by an Audi. “It was particularly important for us to preserve and save our good performance from last year over the winter break”, said Basseng. “We thus continue with our preparations for the ADAC Zurich 24h Race in June this year with a great self-confidence.”
The Black-Falcon-Team in second place gained important experience. “Our pace is not yet at a point where we would like to be”, said Arnold. “In today’s race, we have nevertheless collected a lot if ideas regarding possible improvements in order to keep up with our competitors. It is very important for us drivers that we have finished the race on the podium because you have to get re-adapted to the Nordschleife every time. The result is a good motivation for us.” Baumann, too, was happy with the result: „A result in the top three feels good – it demonstrates that both drivers and team have made a good job. After the long winter break, it was important for us to get some routine for the complete procedures and processes again.”
The top three were followed by the two BMW Z4 GT3 of the BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS into positions four and five. Jürgen Alzen (Betzdorf/ Germany) and Dominik Schwager (Munich)in the Ford GT3 finished sixth ahead of the two Aston-Martin Stuart Leonard and Paul Wilson (both from Great Britain) who made their debut with the Vantage V12 GT3 following in seventh place. The fast SP7 Porsche in eighth position was driven by Georg Weiss (Monschau/ Germany), Oliver Kainz (Kottenheim/ Germany), Michael Jacobs (Roetgen-Rott/ Germany) and Jochen Krumbach (Eschweiler/ Germany) for the Wochenspiegel Team Manthey.
The first victory in the new Cup5 class went to the team of Adrenalin Motorsport and drivers Guido Wirtz (Cologne), Christopher Rink (Frankfurt) and Oleg Kvitka (Cologne). The driver trio in the BMW M235i Racing completed the total of 25 laps in the 4 hour race at the 24.358 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short version and the Nordschleife. Seven of the Cup Touring Cars out of ten starters were finally classified. “A fantastic picture to see the new cars for the first time racing at the Nordschleife”, said BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt who had travelled to the Eifel track to see the first race of the Cup. “BMW and the Nürburgring are united by a great tradition and it was a matter of personal importance for us to bring the new M235i here to the start.”
The day victory in the Opel Astra OPC Cup went to Jari Nuoramo, Juha Hannonen and Ralf-Peter Bonk (all from Senden/ Germany). Into second place finished TV moderator Tim Schrick (Munich) and Hannu Luostarinen (Adenau/ Germany); the podium was completed by the two VLN experienced drivers Heinz-Otto and Jürgen Fritzsche who are this year sharing the cockpit with Thorsten Wolter (Berlin). In the Renault Clio Cup class, the current champions Dirk and Tim Groneck (both from Melle/ Germany) were beaten by the team of Schläppi Race-Tech with driver duo Holger Goedicke (Weinsberg/ Germany) and Mathias Schläppi (Switzerland), whereas Leutheuser Racing&Events celebrated a double win in the TMG GT86 Cup. Alexander Kudras (Lohmar/ Germany), Martin Tschornia (Bestwig/ Germany) and Wolfgang Kudrass (Lohmar/ Germany) took the chequered flag with an advance of 3:11,949 minutes ahead of Jutta Beisiegel (Kaiserslautern/ Germany), Pawel Ledwon (Berlin) and Ralf Goral (Moers/ Germany). The victory in the Porsche-Cup class was gained by Adam Osieka (Bonn/ Germany), Steve Jahns (Luxembourg) and Christopher Mies (Heiligenhaus/ Germany). The team GetSpeed Performance thus stood up against Wolfgang Kohler (Aldingen/ Germany) and Christian Menzel (Kelberg/ Germany) of the Team Manthey-Racing finishing in second place with a gap of one lap.
The second round of the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburging will take place in two weeks’ time already. The 39th DMV 4 Hour Race organised by the Renngemeinschaft Düren will also cover the distance of four hours.
