The highlight of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring will take place on 18th of July. The 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen ‘Um die Pokale der Opel-Werke Bochum’ does not only represent this year’s sporting highlight in this unique racing series at the Nordschleife. A number of colourful supporting events will turn the sixth round of the year into a true summer festival. In addition to exciting motorsport and a vehicle parade through the “Green Hell” made up of one example each of all the Opel passenger cars manufactured in the city of Bochum, which will certainly attract a lot of attention, there will be a Haribo activity area for the smaller fans in the paddocks. Another special feature on this race day: All Opel employees together with one accompanying person will have free entry. Furthermore, for each child below 14 years of age, families get one free ticket with admission to the paddocks and to the open grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit, by the way including the main grandstands which were opened last weekend together with further attractions at the new Nürburgring. The start of the race over the distance of six hours will be given at 12 o’clock exactly, the timed practice is scheduled to take place between 08.30 a.m. and 10.00 a.m.
Even if it didn’t make a difference in the championship classification – the victory at the 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen has a higher value than at any other event in the calendar of this most popular racing series in Europe. The preparations made by the teams for this highlight of the season have therefore been accordingly comprehensive. The number of favourites this year is higher than ever as, apart from a handful of fast and reliable Porsches in the classes of the VLN Specials and the GT3, the Ford GT entered by Raeder Motorsport and the Audi A8 entered by Phoenix-Racing, which has recently achieved the ever first victory for Audi in the history of the championship, must be counted to the circle of favourites. Nevertheless, history has shown that it was exactly at the 6h Race that the ‘underdogs’ quite often had their time. A strategy totally different from the one at the 4-Hour Races had brought teams onto the podium which originally nobody had taken into account. Amongst these is the BMW Z4 of Michael Bäder (Ofterdingen) and Tobias Hagenmeyer (Cologne) just as well as the BMW M3 “Eifelblitz” entered by Scheid-Motorsport or the Astra V8 Coupé of father and son Schall. At the 6h Race 2008, the former DTM Opel had an exciting battle with the Kissling Corvette about position three in the final part of the race – a scenario which might easily be seen this year again.
International entry with guest starters from Guatemala
In addition to the racing professionals such as Uwe Alzen, Frank Biela, Armin Hahne, Hans-Joachim Stuck and others, the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring attracts more and more competitors from all over the world to come into the Eifel region. An excellent example is Rodney Forbes from Australia who this year participated in all of the five rounds and currently holds 19th championship position amongst more than 600 drivers. At the 6h Race, three guest starters from Guatemala will for the first time start in the “Green Hell”: Erick Samayoa, Juan Pablo Diaz and Agustin Casse Marimon. The latter has a very special relation to the Nürburgring – his grandfather Onofre Marimon met with an accident 55 years ago on the Nordschleife at the Grand Prix of Germany. “I wish to honour the performance of by grandfather with my participation in the 6h Race”, he says. The trio will participate in the highlight of the season in a BMW 325 in class V4 VLN production cars.
Series winner with and without chances to gain the title
In the season 2009 so far, six teams succeeded in gaining four class victories in five races. Hereby, the current championship leader Marco Schelp scored the highest number of points. The race driver from Berlin won the class of the VLN Specials up to 3.500 cc cubic capacity four times together with Rudi Adams (Ahütte) and Luca Ludwig (Bornheim) in the BMW Z4 entered by Dörr-Motorsport. In the single race in which the trio was not up on top of the podium, double starter Schelp made it to second place in a BMW M3, Adams and Ludwig became third. The Sartorius Team Black Falcon around last year’s champions Alexander Böhm (Kelberg), Christer Jöns (Ingelheim) and Sean Paul Breslin (Great Britain) have also scored four class victories in the class of VLN production cars up to 2.500 cc cubic capacity. Their “mistake” was a third position at the third round. The action in the very competitive Honda-Civic-Cup class is currently dominated by Christoph Dupré (Schiffweiler) and Jürgen Nett (Mayen) with four wins and one ‘flop’ at the fourth round. Due to the high numbers of competitors in their respective classes, these three teams have good chances to have some say in gaining the title. Dennis and Marc Busch (both from Hemsbach), four victories in the Seat Leon Supercopa class, Volker Strycek (Dehrn) and Ralf Schall (Dornstadt), four victories in class E1 XP in the Opel Astra V8 Coupé, as well as Roland Rehfeld (Blenkenfelde) and Reinhold Renger (Rothenburg-Tauber), four victories in class SP8 with their Kissling Corvette, though, will probably not have the chance to gain the title as the number of competitors in their respective classes is not very high.
