The calendar for the 2017 VLN endurance championship Nürburgring is set. The championship season will include nine races at the “Green Hell”. Eight of those will run over the distance of four hours and the 6h Race scheduled to take place on 19th August will be the highlight of the year. The season will start on 25th March and finish on 21st October.
„It was not an easy decision for us to reduce the calendar onto nine races“, admits VLN chief representative Karl Mauer. Over 40 years, the endurance championship comprised ten races in each season. After the withdrawal of the AC Monheim, the organiser association is now made up of nine members and, according to tradition, in 2017 each VLN member will be responsible for the organisation of one race. In 2016, the MSC Adenau filled the gap and organised right two races – an enormous effort for the regional motorsport club in terms of staff, organisation and logistics.
“We have studied the statistical figures of the last years and we had intensive discussions with many participants”, Mauer informs. “The conclusions encouraged us to propose a more compact calendar for the VLN. Even though the number of participants in 2016 has slightly increased compared to the previous year, the number of cars entering all of the ten rounds was slightly lower. Moreover, one race less means a significant reduction of the running costs for our teams.”
The VLN is and will remain grass-roots sports. So even with nine races, only the best seven results of each participant will be taken into consideration for the final championship score. “This point is of great importance for us”, says Karl Mauer. “Whatever the reasons may be, even the teams which will not participate in all of the nine races should have the chance to fight about the title.”
The VLN 2017 calendar:
25.03. – 63. ADAC Westfalenfahrt
08.04. – 42. DMV 4-Stunden-Rennen
24.06. – 59. ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup
08.07. – 48. Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy
19.08. – ROWE 6 Hour ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen
02.09. – 40. RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen
23.09. – 57. ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen
07.10. – 49. ADAC Barbarossapreis
21.10. – 42. DMV Münsterlandpokal
