The seventh round of the VLN endurance racing championship will be a super-class XL motorsport show for all the spectators. The Opel 6h Ruhr-Pokal Race will take place on 5 September and provide 50 percent more of racing action for all the visitors at the Nordschleife. One thing is almost certain when the colourful mix of teams and the wide range of different racing cars will start to the six hour race at 12 o’clock: After the victories so far scored by Audi, Porsche, BMW, Ford and recently Mercedes-Benz, the winning car at the end of the long-distance race will be one of those again, unless one of the many dreams of James Glickenhaus will become true when the team owner of the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus will for the second time in the current season send his race car SCG003C, manufactured at his own design, into the race. Should the extraordinary cars which will compete in the special class X indeed succeed in providing the surprise to win the race, this would be the sixth manufacturer in the sixth classified VLN race of the season to celebrate an overall win at the ‘Green Hell’. Glickenhaus anyway wishes to demonstrate that his self-designed race cars are more than just a touch of colour on the grid.
One of those who will have the honour to drive one of the Glickehaus race cars over the 25.378 kilometres long Eifel circuit is Felipe Fernández Laser who will make his debut in the SCG003C and share the cockpit with Franck Mailleux and Andreas Simonsen. The 26 years old has the chance to also enter into the statistics of the VLN season 2015 as the first two-times winner as Laser is one of the double starters in the field. He will thus also do his very best in the BMW Z4 of the team Walkenhorst to complete as many laps as possible in the six hour race. In doing so, he will be supported by his team mates Michela Cerruti, David Jahn and Victor Bouveng. The team had already been on top of the winners’ podium at the fourth VLN race in the current season. Their third and sixth positions respectively in the two subsequent races demonstrate that the Walkenhorst BMW has become a hot iron in the fire regarding the fight for a race win. However, the large number of Audi vehicles on the grid, such as for example the R8 LMS ultra of Marc and Dennis Busch together with Marc Basseng, will not make it easy for them to achieve their goal. The same applies for the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of ROWE RACING with the winning driver duo of the last race, Klaus Graf and Christian Hohenadel. And the Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Sabine Schmitz, Klaus Abbelen and Patrick Huisman, too, will definitely compete again in the top. They recently finished the last race in third place with their Frikadelli Porsche, just behind Hubert Haupt and Adam Christodoulou in a Mercedes. The latter driver duo will this time be completed by Abdulaziz Al Faizal and Yelmer Buurmann to replace Andreas Simonsen who will compete in the Opel 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal race in the Glickenhaus SCG003C and they are definitely also good for an overall win.
In particular this seventh VLN race will of course be dedicated to the make with the Blitz logo. Once again, the fox tail on the antenna of the legendary Opel Manta will be blowing in the wind at the ‘Green Hell’. The Manta is one in the series of those legendary models which have attracted a lot of attention at the Eifel circuit; those also include the Kadett GSI 16V, the Omega 3000 24V, the Calibra V6, the Vectra STW or the winning car of the 24 Hour Race 2003, the Astra V8 Coupé. The team has taken really big efforts to be able to start the 6 hour race with the Manta at their home track after their accident in the penultimate race which was caused by another competitor. “It was a lot of work to get the Manta ready to race again. The light in our workshop was rarely turned off in the past weeks”, says team manager and driver Olaf Beckmann. Together with Peter Hass und Volker Strycek, Beckmann hopes to score a win with their cult car in class H2. The Manta and Strycek as Opel Director Performance Cars & Motorsport belong to Opel just as the make belongs to the Nürburgring. And there will definitely also be plenty of action again in the popular Opel OPC Cup. The experienced crew with Heinz-Otto and Jürgen Fritzsche are currently in the lead of this exciting one-make cup. With their Cup Astra of the Ti-Tarvike racing Team and together with Hannu Luostarinen, the twins are in first position of the overall classification after five classified races. After their victory in the last race, they would be happy to be the first team in the season to win two races in a row. Moreover, Heinz-Otto Fritzsche has an additional motivation as he is still missing two class wins to catch up with Ralf Schall in the statistics of class wins.
Considering the four remaining VLN races, the fight about the overall win is also getting closer and closer. After five classified races, all of the top three teams in the championship classification have so far absolutely dominated their classes. First of all the overall winners of the year 2013, Tim and Dirk Groneck who haven’t stopped celebrating this year their wins in class SP3. The brothers secured win by win with their Renault Clio entered by the Ravenol Team. No other competitor has been able to beat them so far in the season 2015 and with a current score of 47.07 points the Groneck brothers are well on their way to repeating their success. The decision, however, has not been taken yet considering that Fabian Wrabetz and Arne Hoffmeister are close to their heels. They, too, have won their class in the competitive TMG GT 86 Cup in each of the classified races. The competitors find it hard to beat this Toyota GT 86 entered by the Team Dörr Motorsport which is in second overall position with a score of 46.21 points. With only 0.02 points behind follows Stefan van Campenhoudt who also set the benchmark in his class V4. With his BMW 325i E90 of the Team Schirmer, the Belgian solo driver leaves all of the competitors in his class far behind. He will take all efforts at the Opel ADAC 6h Race to win the exceptionally strong class again. As, however, it is a condition for a six hour race to enter two drivers for each car, van Campenhoudt will this time be supported by the experienced touring car driver Michael Funke.
With all of the powerful and strong GT3 racers, the fascinating cars manufactured at own design or the legendary cult cars, the Opel 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal race on 5 September will provide top-class motorsport action for all the spectators. The timed practice will take place between 08h30 and 10h00 in the morning before the cars will from 11h20 proceed to their thus determined positions on the starting grid. The spectators will beforehand have the opportunity to have a close look onto the cars in the pit lane during the pit walk. The real action will then start at 12h00 when the starting signal for the six hour race at the Nordschleife will be given.
