The final rehearsal for the ADAC Zurich 24h Race will take place on 17th May on occasion of the 45th Adenauer ADAC simfy-Trophy, the fourth round of the VLN endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring. A number of teams will use this last opportunity before the classical Eifel race to get a final preparation for the highlight at the ‘green hell’ under real racing conditions.
Everybody who is anybody will be at the start of this race running over the usual four hour duration at the 24.538 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short version and the Nordschleife. More than 50 top vehicles will be involved in the fight for the race victory, more than in any other European race series. It is nonetheless not only these dream sports cars which inspire the fans so much, the colourful mix of drivers which include former Formula 1 stars, Le Mans winners, former DTM drivers and ambitious private race drivers, too, is absolutely unique. The spectators around the Nordschleife can follow the action free of charge. A family-friendly entry fee of 15€ will be charged per person for access to the open grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit, including a visit in the paddocks and on the starting grid. Young people up to the age of 14 years have free entry. Tickets will be available at the box-offices on-site. More information on the most popular grassroots series in Europe is available in the internet on www.nuerburgring-langstrecken-serie.de.
Audi, Porsche and finally BMW – the German premium car manufacturers have shared the first three victories amongst themselves. Mercedes-Benz is the next make ready to score another win at the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring. With the total of 43 overall wins, the manufacturer with the star in their logo ranks in second position in the VLN statistics, behind Porsche. The Porsche factory from Zuffenhausen can look back onto 197 victories. The candidates to score a win for Mercedes are the highly competitive crews in the SLS AMG GT3 of ROWE RACING and of Black Falcon. With Weiland Racing and Car Collection Motorsport, two other teams rely on the huge gullwing race cars but will however only have outside chances with their amateur drivers. With Aston Martin Racing, GT Corse by Rinaldi and the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN the entry list of the fourth round of the season includes interesting drivers who definitely have the ambition to challenge the other, previously so successful GT3 race cars from Germany. Stefan Mücke (Berlin) and Darren Turner (Great Britain) will start in the British noble sports car Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and two of the Nissan teams include names such as the former Formula 1 driver Nick Heidfeld and All-Japan-GT-Champion Michael Krumm (Monaco). Both vehicles have already impressively indicated their strong potential at the Nordschleife but are still missing a victory. The last and so far only Ferrari victory dates back to the year 2011 when the Farnbach team competed in an F458 in class SP8. The GT3 counterpart will be driven by Alexander Matschull (Bad Homburg/ Germany), Andrea Barlesi (France), Mike Jäger (Kaiserslautern/ Germany) and Pierre Ehret (Tegernsee/ Germany) at this fourth VLN round.
The MSC Adenau e.V. im ADAC, responsible for the sporting organisation of the fourth race in the current VLN series, is represented in the provisional entry list with quite a number of teams and drivers. The most powerful cars have been entered by raceunion Teichmann Racing – one Porsche 911 GT3 in class SP7 (VLN-Specials up to 4,000 cc cylinder capacity) und in Cup2 (Porsche Carrera Cup) respectively. Horst and Helmut Baumann (both from Bonn/ Germany) will start under their club competitor with a Lexus ISF, just as two Aston Martin Vantage in class GT4. Start number 424 will figure on the BMW M3 of Carsten Welschar (Petershagen-Doehren/ Germany), Walter Csaba and Adrienn Walterne Dancso (both from Hungary) whereas Michael Mönch (Adenau/ Germany) and Oliver Frisse (Rühten/ Germany) will reply on a BMW 325i in class V4 (VLN production cars up to 2,500 cc cylinder capacity). The group of drivers contesting a home match is completed by another two crews with Jörg Wisskirchen (Euskirchen/ Germany), David Griessner (Austria) and David Ackermann (Döttingen/ Germany) as well as Max Partl (Pyrbaum/ Germany) and Jörg Weidinger (Happurg/ Germany) who both will participated in the class CUP5 (BMW M235i Racing Cup).
After three of ten rounds, the latter are shown in second championship position behind the table leaders Rolf Derscheid (Much/ Germany) and Michael Flehmer (Overath/ Germany) who have so far scored three victories in class V4 with their BMW 325i and are thus currently also shown in the lead of the VLN Production Car Trophy. Into third position follow the Porsche drivers of the Black Falcon Team Reissdorf Alkoholfrei, Tim Scheerbarth (Dormagen/ Germany) and Andreas Weishaupt (Ulm/ Germany). Fourth are the current champions Dirk and Tim Groneck (both from Melle/ Germany) who wish to defend their title in the Renault Clio Cup class. The current leader in the VLN Junior Trophy is Max Partl. The Team Phoenix Racing has won the opening round with the Audi R8 LMS ultra with start number 5 and scored as well points in all the other races so that they are in first place of the VLN Speed Trophy.
The fourth race of the VLN series will start as usual at 12 o’clock on Saturday afternoon and run over the duration of four hours. The positions on the starting grid will previously be decided in the timed practice between 08:30 and 10:00hrs. A 30 minutes summary will be shown in channel Sport1 on 24th May at 13:00hrs.
