The BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring now slowly enters the home straight of the 2009 season. This fact, however, does not imply that there is no more enthusiasm now after eight successful races in the current year. The decision in the drivers’ championship still has to be taken and continues to provide excitement amongst the great number of participants in this most popular endurance racing championship in Europe. At the event organised by the AC Monheim, the action will be completed by a handful of new projects which will cause a lot of sensation in the long distance series – also with a view to the coming season 2010. The fans may look forward to an exciting race day. The positions on the starting grid for the 33rd DMV 250-Meilen-Rennen, which will start at 12 o’clock exactly, will be determined in the timed practice to take place between 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. After this ninth round covering the race distance of four hours, the official prizegiving ceremony for the overall and class winners will then take place in the ‘Eifel Stadl’ again, the discotheque in the Eifel village ‘Green Hell’. All the spectators are cordially invited for 6 p.m. to join the successful drivers when they celebrate their victories.
The first race participation of the BMW M3 GT2 in Europe attracted a lot of attention already at the 41st ADAC Barbarossapreis race. The powerful sports car from Bavaria will start again at the oncoming ninth championship race of the year. The drivers this time will be Dirk Müller (Burbach) and the triple touring car world champion Andy Priaulx (Great Britain). Achieving fourth overall position at their first race participation on the Nordschleife, the team was quite happy with the performance of the new M3 and Friedhelm Nohl, head of the BMW Sports and Touring Car Technical Department said: “We hope to perhaps achieve a position on the podium at our next race.”
The top competition in the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring will again be completed by some very competitive teams at the penultimate championship race of the season. For the first time in the current season, ALMS star Dominik Farnbacher (Lichtenau) and Porsche Carrera Cup specialist Robert Renauer (Jedenhofen) will take the start in a Porsche 911 GT3 in class VLN Specials up to 3.500 cc cylinder capacity (SP7). In their class, the duo will meet the Dutch touring car specialist Tom Coronel who will also compete in a Porsche together with his team mate Henk Haane (both from the Netherlands). A well-known countryman of Coronel and Haane will start in the class VLN Specials up to 3.000 cc cylinder capacity (SP6): former DTM driver Jeroen Bleekemolen will race together with Maik Rosenberg (Attendorn) and Andrew Baughan (Great Britain) in a BMW M3 entered by the team Black Falcon. The most successful race car of the current season will be driven by a very strong crew at the 33rd DMV 250-Meilen-Rennen: Regular driver Marcel Tiemann (Monaco) will be supported in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR entered by Manthey-Racing by the two Porsche works drivers Timo Bernhard (Dittweiler) and Richard Lietz (Austria).
A fresh wind will blow into class GT4 for close-to-production sports cars. In addition to the two well-known Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Jörg van Ommen (Sinzig) and Masashige Itoh (Japan) will for the first time take part in an Audi TT. The Corvette C6 of Callaway Competition driven by Tobias Guttroff (Wertheim) will also have its first race appearance in the current championship. All the familiar great race cars will again be competing one stage higher, in the class of GT3 cars. The last winner, the Mamerow Porsche, will meet the two Audi R8 LMS entered by Phoenix-Racing, the spectacular Ford GT of Raeder Automotive as well as the Manthey-GT3-Porsche with drivers Armin Hahne (Monaco), Jochen Krumbach (Eschweiler) and Marco Holzer (Bobingen).
Four teams are able to achieve the magical number of eight class wins
80 percent of the results achieved in the races will count for the final classification of the endurance racing championship. Eight class victories are hence almost a precondition to have a chance in gaining the title. Before the ninth championship race, four teams and drivers still have the possibility to score this magical number of eight victories. With seven class wins so far, the current champion team Black Falcon with drivers Alexander Böhm (Kelberg), Christer Jöns (Ingelheim) and Sean Paul Breslin (Great Britain) has really good chances to defend their title. And the crew which is based in Kelberg in the Eifel region has another hot iron in the fire. Bona Ventura (Cologne), Daniel Schwerfeld (Düsseldorf) and Frank Bierther (Bornheim) have already scored six class victories, the same number as the duo Rolf Derscheid (Much) and Michael Flehmer (Overath) as well as Manthey regular driver Marcel Tiemann (Monaco).
