VLN teams with good changes to finish in the top ten at the 24h Race

The traditional racing teams of the VLN will provide a strong line-up at the Nürburgring ADAC Zurich 24h-Rennen. Teams such as Black Falcon, Frikadelli-Racing, Manthey-Racing, Walkenhorst-Motorsport, Rowe-Racing or the Wochenspiegel Team Monschau, to name just a few, is as much a part of the Nordschleife as is the Cathedral of Cologne.

Rowe Racing is one of the major teams with promising chances to win the 46thedition of this race. “Each Team Principle would just be happy to compete in the 24h Race with such a strong and highly professional driver crew”, says Team PrincipleHans-Peter Naundorf. Two of the total of seven drivers will join Rowe Racing for the first time at this marathon race. The other drivers are well-known faces. The positions behind the steering wheels of the two BMW M6 GT3, which has been entered by the competitor from St. Ingbert with the works support of BMW Motorsport, will mainly be changed between BMW drivers from the GT works programmes in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSAWeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

New on board will be John Edwards and Connor de Phillipi, both from the United States with the latter having snatched away the overall win from Rowe Racing last year in an Audi. This time, he will share the car with Alex Sims from Great Britain who was last year beaten by a narrow margin. The quartet will be completed by Jesse Krohn from Finland and the former DTM Champion Martin Tomczyk. The sister car will be driven by last year’s second-placed and, back then, final driver Nick Catsburg from the Netherlands and the British Richards Westbrook, with Edwards supporting the two.

Rowe Racing will have a tail wind when arriving at the Nürburgring for the classical long-distance race. The first VLN victory at the Nordschleife after 959 days at race two represents a big motivation and confirmation for the team that they will also be able to fight for the win at this highlight of the season. Last year, Rowe Racing finished second and was so close to the big triumph at the Eifel track as never before.

Frikadelli, the cult racing team around Sabine Schmitzand Klaus Abbelen has entered two Porsche 911 GT3 R with purely professional teams. The red and white nine-eleven will be shared amongst Lance David Arnold, Alex Müller, Wolf Henzler and Porsche Young Professional Matt Campbell. The line-up in the sister car is made up of Norbert Siedler, Felipe Fernandez Laser, Marco Seefried and Mathieu Jaminet zum Einsatz. “Never before have we prepared ourselves as consistently and comprehensively onto an ADAC Zurich 24h Race at the Nürburgring as this year”, informs Team Principle Klaus Abbelen. “Until the very last moment, we have been working on the perfect overall package. Our team comprises six declared long-distance and nine-eleven specialists as well as two young but extremely promising talents from the driver squad of Porsche. This puts us definitely in a very good position.”

Black Falcon can claim the same for their team. At the rehearsal, the Qualification Race at the Nürburgring, Yelmer Buurman, Jan Seyffarth and Thomas Jäger in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 secured an overall win after six exciting race hours. The driver trio will be supported by Luca Stolz for the weekend. Two additional AMG GT3 from Black Falcon will also be at the start with the drivers Adam Christodoulou, Maro Engel and Manuel Metzger, the driver trio won in 2016, as well as Dirk Müller. This quartet, too, scored a good result at the prologue in finishing eighths. Into tenth place came Abdulaziz Al Faisal, Hubert Haupt, Erik Johansson and Gabriele Piana, who thus left behind a number of works-supported cars.

With Kévin Estre, Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor (winner of the 24h in 2015) plus Romain Dumas, Manthey Racing has three winners of the first VLN round in 2018 on board of the Porsche 911 GT3 R. The crew in the sister car is also composed of VLN winners. With Romain Dumas, Fred Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet winning the opening round of the VLN season 2017, this was the first time in the history of the long-distance championship that three Frenchmen climbed up on the top position of the podium. For the 24h Race, the team of Makowiecki and Pilet will be completed by Richard Lietz and Nick Tandy. Manthey won the 24h already from 2006 to 2009 and in 2011. Romain Dumas was one of the drivers in the winning Porsche on four of these five occasions.

Into an excellent seventh place finished last year the Ferrari 488 GT3 of the Wochenspiegel Team Monschau. The drivers in the Cavallino Rampante will in 2018 again be Team Principle Georg Weiss, Oliver Kainz and Jochen Krumbach. The quartet will be completed by Christian Menzel. “I expect an exciting 24h Race with even closer fights in the top group than last year. In any case, we intend to become the best team without works support”, says the 53 times VLN class winner Krumbach.

Walkenhorst will have a BMW M4 GT4 in class SP10, a BMW Z4 GT3 in class SP9-LG and a BMW M6 GT3 in class SP9 at the start, the latter driven by Team Principle Henry Walkenhorst, Jordan Tresson, Ralf Oeverhaus and Andreas Ziegler.