An ideal occasion to celebrate this fantastic jubilee: The Manta 16V of Hans-Olaf Beckmann will have its 100th start in the VLN endurance racing championship at the Opel 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen on 23rd August 2014. “We have been using the same bodywork since the car made its debut on 23 April 1994”, informs car owner Beckmann. “Any damages have always been repaired. Since the very first hour, Kissling Motorsport has taken over the responsibility for the engine. I love this car and there is nothing better than racing around the Nordschleife in this car.”
Even in today’s fast moving times, the Beckmann Manta is an absolute exception – and that may be the reason why the fans like it so much. Could the Coupé from the Rüsselsheim factory speak it would tell you stories covering several generations of competitors on the race track. Whether the Benra-Family in the NSU, the Escort-Icons Andreas Schall and Hans-Otto Mallwitz, Franz Dufter at the steering wheel of the mastop-M3, the legendary Dören-Tuffi-Porsche, the Zakspeed-Viper, Manthey’s „strong one“ or the current GT3 race cars – this Manta had all of them in the competition.
To put it in figures, this comes up to 1,795 VLN race laps and a total distance of 43,532 kilometres. The team enjoyed celebrating 38 class wins, ten second and nine third positions. Hans-Olaf Beckmann was part of the team in all of the 99 races, followed by Peter Hass (67), Bernhard Schmittner (18) and Volker Strycek (15). And if that were not enough for the ‘world record race car’ – there are in addition 1,062 laps and 27,039 kilometres covered at many 24 Hour Races at the Nürburgring.
At the previous 13 starts in the ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen, the team has scored six class wins and four additional results on the podium. At this year’s event, Beckmann, Hass and Strycek wish to score another success. Beckmann. “A class win at the 100th start would be brilliant. Please keep your fingers crossed for us.“
