The season finale in the VLN endurance championship Nürburgring was extremely competitive. The winners in the end were Christopher Mies and Connor de Phillippi in the Audi R8 LMS of Land Motorsport. This was not only the third victory of the season for the team but at the same time the 20th overall win for the Audi brand in the history of the endurance championship.
In terms of class wins, Ralf Schall, who became first in class H4 with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and together with Christopher Gerhard, further extended his lead in the all-time winners’ list maintained since 1990. The man from Dornstadt in Baden-Württemberg/Germany has now scored the total of 90 class wins, of which as many as eight in this year’s season. Not far behind are Volker Strycek with 87 victories and Peter Hass with 86. Together with Olaf Beckmann, the two VLN grandees drove towards victory in the Opel Manta for the sixth time in the VLN year that has just ended.
Yet, the youngsters are also moving forward. Tim Scheerbarth, VLN Champion in the year 2011, achieved his 30th class win together with Alexander Toril. They drove an SP7 Porsche of Black Falcon. “I am really happy having scored another class victory”, said the 27 years old Scheerbarth. “There is no better way to finish the season.”
Håkon Schjærin from Norway, who competed together with his fellow countrymen Alte Gulbrandsen and Kenneth Østvold in an Audi TT RS 2,0 in the class of VLN Specials up to 2,000 cc cylinder capacity with turbo, succeeded in winning his class for the 20th time. The Aston Martin teams were so far able to jubilee three times more often. Since 1990, the British super sports cars have been successful in the VLN 60 times. The jubilee victory was taken by Norbert Bermes, Wolfgang Weber and Timo Mölig in the Vantage V8 of Mathol Racing.
