The fans of the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring will remember the 39th DMV Münsterlandpokal for a long time. The title in this most popular grassroots series in Europe went to two true privateers, Rolf Derscheid (Much/ Germany) and Michael Flehmer (Overath/ Germany). There was a huge row of congratulations which also demonstrated that everyone in the paddocks felt from the bottom of their heart that this nice team with their BMW 325i has absolutely deserved the triumph. In a symbolic act and under thunderous applause, VLN managing director Karl Mauer (Üxheim/ Germany) passed over start number 1 to the new champions on the winners’ podium. The race result, too, provided some kind of sensation: Jürgen Alzen (Kausen/ Germany) and Dominik Schwager (Munich) scored their first and much acclaimed overall win in the Ford GT3 entered by H&R Spezialfedern. In the exciting final part of the race, the driver duo dominated the team of Klaus Abbelen, Sabine Schmitz (both from Barweiler/ Germany), Patrick Huisman (Netherlands) and Frank Stippler (Bad Münstereifel/ Germany) in the Porsche 911 GT3 R of the team Frikadelli-Racing. Finishing third, the drivers Otto Klohs (Ludwigshafen/ Germany) and Frédéric Makowiecki (France) in the Porsche 911 GT3 R entered by the team Manthey-Racing made their debut on the winners’ podium. A 30 minutes summary of the season finale will be shown in channel Sport1 on 1st November at 11 o’clock.
A preliminary decision had already been taken at the ninth race of the series but the new champions started their celebrations only after the last chequered flag of the year 2014 had come out. “I am completely overwhelmed, I have no words to express my feelings“, admitted Derscheid after the race. “We have been competing together in the endurance racing championship since a few years – and quite a few times we were not far away from leading the championship. But we never made it in the end. That’s a big load off my mind now.” Team mate Flehmer added: “We will definitely celebrate a big party tonight. The whole team has done a brilliant job throughout the complete season. Even though it is Rolf and me now who are in the spotlight, this success is on the side of our fantastic team.“
The winners of the day, too, were really happy. Alzen, who combines the tasks as driver and team manager in one person, was more than happy after the end of the seven years lasting dry spell without any victory. “I have always been convinced that we would succeed again some day, even though I stood alone with this thought for some times. This result is a fantastic success not only for me but for the whole team and I am sure that we will pursue our good performance next year.“ The highly praised team played a significant part in gaining this result after Alzen had suffered an accident in practice. “I had informed my team immediately about the damages. When I then arrived back at the pits, my mechanics were pushing really hard. Everything was running perfectly today.” The victory of Alzen and Schwager is the first win of a Ford in the VLN series since 1990. The last Ford victory was scored at the Grenzlandrennen by Dieter Selzer (Dillingen/ Germany) and Hermann Tilke (Aachen/ Germany) in a Ford Sierra Cosworth. Alzen will furthermore go down in history in another respect. In the statistics of overall wins, he is now the only one to be on top of the list with 29 wins. Before, he shared this top position in the roll of honour with Olaf Manthey (Bonn/ Germany) and the deceased Ulli Richter (Essen/ Germany).
Behind the top three finished the two solo drivers Wolfgang Kaufmann (Molsberg/ Germany) in the Kremer-Porsche and Marco Seefried (Wemding/ Germany) in another nine eleven in positions four and five. Jens Klingmann (Leimen/ Germany), Yelmer Buurman (Netherlands) and Nikolaus Mayr-Meinhof (Austria) finished sixth in the BWM Z4 GT3 of the Team Vita4One Racing.
In the timed practice, Antti Buri and Kari-Pekka Laaksonen provide a really huge surprise. In difficult weather conditions, the driver duo gained pole position with their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. The fastest lap on the wet track was completed by Buri in 9:58.512 minutes. “I was really lucky in gaining pole position”, he said. “We went out of the pits quite early in the session and I had a clear lap. No improvements were possible then in the remainder of the practice.” The driver duo did no longer play an essential role in the race and they finally finished in 18th place.
The finale of the season had to be interrupted with the red flag 24 minutes after the start. “Due to the emerging fog, the visibility in the area of the Grand Prix Circuit had become so poor that the safety of the participants was endangered”, informed Clerk of the Course Andreas Thamm (Wuppertal/ Germany). The race over the remaining 3:06 hours was restarted at 14:25h and full points will thus be awarded for the endurance racing championship.
The result in the Opel Astra OPC Cup is now, after the finale, also decided. Ex-champions Heinz-Otto and Jürgen Fritzsche (both from Hückeswagen/ Germany), together with Thorsten Wolter (Berlin), won the title in the Cup vehicle of the team Lubner Event & Motorsport. With their fourth class win, Arne Hoffmeister (Lutter/ Germany) and Fabian Wrabetz (Bad Soden/ Germany) secured their win of the TMG GT 86 Cup. Derscheid and Flehmer are also the winners of the VLN Production Car Trophy and the victory in the VLN Junior Trophy went to Max Partl (Pyrbaum/ Germany) who shared the cockpit in the BMW M235i of the team Scheid-Partl Motorsport with Jörg Weidinger (Happurg/ Germany).
The next date not to miss on the calendar by the fans of the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring is the Essen Motor Show to take place from 29th November to 7th December. The most popular grassroots series in Europe will be represented in hall 6 with a huge stand and it will contribute to the show programme in hall 7.
