TMG GT86 Cup: Third victory in third race

“We absolutely do finally want this first victory” – this was the statement made by Florian Wolf before he started the third round of the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring together with his team mate Nils Jung. In the previous two races, the Ring Racing driver duo had achieved only second places respectively in the TMG GT86 Cup events. At their third attempt, however, Jung and Wolf walked the talk, celebrated a class win with their TMG GT86 CS-V3 and for the first time went into the lead of the Cup classification.

This championship position had so long been comfortably taken up by Pitlane – AMC Sankt Vith with the driver trio Bruno Barbaro, Olivier Muytjens and `Brody` who is competing under a pseudonym. After their win at the season opener and a third place at the second VLN race, they finished this time in fourth position only. Actually, the crew was amongst others beaten by a totally unexperienced driver duo. Wilson Graham from Luxembourg gave his debut at the Nordschleife in the Cup Toyota of the Team Mathol and for his team mate Henric Skoog, it was only his second race at the circuit in the Eifel. “They both had got their permit to compete at the Nordschleife only yesterday and they showed an excellent performance already today,” said Mathol boss Matthias Holle who was so happy about the podium for his youngsters.

In the mid-May race, start number 530 could however not be beaten. With a time of 9:51.981 minutes, Wolf had achieved pole position and this was at the same time the fastest time of the day. In the race itself, the two drivers had only one short weak moment and dropped back in second place for a short period. After three laps, the Ring Racing Toyota then made it back into the lead and defended this position in a superior way until the finish. “Our drivers have done a brilliant job today”, team manager Uwe Kleen praised his drivers. Into second place finished the winners of the second VLN race, Manuel Amweg and Thomas Lampert of Toyota Swiss Racing.

From the next VLN race on 25th June, the Cup vehicles will be equipped with the comprehensive 2016 upgrades. The last endurance test of these modifications was running very successfully. In class SP3, the vehicle did not only complete very good lap times but also manged to cover the four hours’ distance without suffering any problem whatsoever and finished second in their class. The fastest lap time achieved by test driver Emil Lindholm was 9:42.495 minutes, which was the best time in his class. “I am really pleased with the successful test of our new Cup car. Our targets with regard to reliability and speed have been achieved”, said Cup manager Nico Ehlert.