The challenge of new cars and rookies in the VLN endurance racing championship started five years ago. In 2009 at the 34th DMV 4 Hour Race, Lance-David Arnold (Duisburg/ Germany) and Chris Mamerow (Castrop-Rauxel/ Germany) celebrated the first victory of a GT3 race car at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S. Half a decade later, the dream sports cars prepared in compliance with the worldwide recognized FIA regulations have become an integral part of this most popular grassroots series in Europe as they stand for balance amongst the top teams and consequently for exciting races at the most beautiful and most demanding race track of the world, the Nürburgring Nordschleife. As usual, the Renngemeinschaft Düren is the organiser of this second round of the season. And this traditional club from the \’Euregio\’ area, a section of the Dutch-German border covering parts of the Netherlands and of Germany, is looking forward to this 39th edition of the DMV 4 Hour Race. More than 170 race cars – from the close-to-production competition touring cars up to the said GT3 race cars – will start the race over four hours on Saturday, 12th April, at 12 o\’clock exactly. For the spectators, their experience endurance racing at the Nordschleife will be free of charge again. A family-friendly fee of 15 euro will be charged for the access to the open grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit and to the paddocks, starting grid included. Young people up to 14 years of age have free entry. Tickets will be available on-site at the box-offices. More information around the most popular endurance racing series in Europe is available in the internet on the website www.nuerburgring-langstrecken-serie.de.
The promising rookies of that time have meanwhile become well established sports car drivers who have not only celebrated fantastic results at the \’Green Hell\’. At the opening round of the 2014 season, Arnold, supported by his team mates Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) and Andreas Simonsen (Sweden), again demonstrated his driving talent. The man from Duisburg/ Germany started the season at the Nürburgring with an excellent second place in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 entered by the team of Black Falcon. At the second race now, Mamerow would like to follow suit with him. He shares the cockpit of one out of two Audi R8 LSM ultra of Phoenix-Racing with René Rast (Stolzenau/ Germany). The team which is based at Meuspath near the Nürburgring celebrated a superior win with the super sports car from Ingolstadt at the 60th ADAC Westfalenfahrt two weeks ago.
Mamerow ranks amongst the fastest drivers at the Nordschleife and has already scored nine wins. At the second VLN race, he will have to compete against a number of strong teams who all want to be involved in the fight for the overall win. A huge group of BMW Z4 GT3 race cars will be at the start, entered by Uwe Alzen Automotive, the BMW Sports Trophy Teams Schubert and Marc VDS as well as by Walkenhorst Motorsport powered by Dunlop. Mercedes Benz will be represented with the gullwing race cars of the teams ROWE RACING and Car Collection. One would of course not like to miss the fast Porsche race cars of Falken Motorsports, Frikadelli-Racing and Manthey-Racing as well as the exotic solo fighters of Aston Martin and McLaren. The Team Gazoo Racing wishes to challenge the leading group with the works supported Lexus LFA-A. Takayuki Kinoshita and Kazuya Oshima from Japan will take turns behind the steering wheel. The huge race car with the Asian crew will start in class SP8, open for VLN Specials up to 6,250 cc cylinder capacity. All together, more than 50 vehicles in the big car classes can be considered to finish in the leading positions.
Not only speed is an important factor at the Nordschleife, but a lot of experience may also well decide about a place in the leading group. In this regard, one Porsche teams stand out with its great experience. Wolfgang Destree (Zornheim/ Germany), Kersten Jodexnis (Hannover/ Germany) and Reinhold Mölig (Waldalgesheim/ Germany) are not only joined by 179 years of life in one cockpit but also by 55 class victories in the VLN endurance racing championship. Mölig, whom the long-time fans will certainly remember in particular due to his time in the Audi S2 at the end of the ninetieth and his excursion in the V8STAR at the beginning of the new millenium, will give his comeback in 2014 after a four years break. The driver trio will compete in the DMV 4 Hour Race in a Porsche 911 GT3 in the class for VLN Specials up to 4,000 cc cylinder capacity.
Speaking of \’old hands\’: Another very experienced race driver will start in the new class Cup5. Harald Grohs (Essen/ Germany) will drive the BMW M235i RACING of the Team Scheid-Partl Motorsport. 27 years ago, Grohs was the first winner in the BMW M3 E30 at the DTM opening round of Hockenheim. In the endurance racing championship, the man from Essen has scored two overall wins and not less than eleven class victories. Grohs will have very strong competitors in the BMW make cup. Starting with the DMV 4 Hour Race, points will now also be awarded in the Cup classification so that the motto from now will be \’flat out\’.
The organising Renngemeinschaft Dürfen expects more than 170 participants. 20 different car manufacturers will be represented in the \’Green Hell\’. The more than 400 drivers are coming from 26 different nations, amongst them nine female drivers. About 70 vehicles come from the group of the VLN Specials and 50 of the groups of VLN production cars and Cup cars respectively.
The start to the race over four hours will be given on Saturday, 12th April, at 12 o\’clock exactly. The positions on the starting grid will previously be decided in the timed practice between 08:30 and 10:00hrs. A 30 minutes summary of the race will be shown in channel Sport1 on 19th April at 16:30hrs.
