The finale of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring is coming up very soon. On 30 October, the 2010 season in the ‘Green Hell’ will end up in a showdown at the 35th DMV Münsterlandpokal. The usual number of 190 cars, ranging from standard production compact cars up to the sophisticated high competition race cars, will once again provide thrilling racing action at the 24.654 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short connection and the Nordschleife on occasion of the ‘ham race’ as insiders call this championship round organised by the MSC Münster. By the way, the race got this nickname not without reason because, in addition to the usual cups, the organising MSC Münster will present an original Westphalian ham as additional trophy to all the winning drivers. Tickets for the paddocks and for the open grandstands around the Grand Prix Circuit can be purchased on-site at the family friendly price of 12 Euro. The timed practice session will take place between 9 and 10:30 a.m. and the race over the distance of four hours will then start at half past twelve. A 30 minutes summary of the race will be broadcasted in Sport 1 on 5 November 2010 at 9 a.m.
The finale of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring is going to be a true festival it will feature a top-class starting grid again. After having missed one race, the GT3 Corvette of Callaway Competition will be back again at the start in cooperation with GMAXX Cars. Christian Hohenadel (Illingen/ Germany) and Lance David Arnold (Duisburg/ Germany) attracted a lot of attention at the first participation of the US sports race car at the Nordschleife when they finished third. The duo is aiming high again for the finale race as the potential of the Corvette in this specification is by far not exhausted yet. With Mühlner-Motorsport, the GT3 class will additionally be much strengthened. The traditional racing team, which is based in Spa-Franchorchamps in Belgium, has entered a Porsche 911 GT3 R with drivers Jörg and Tim Bergmeister (both from Langenfeld/ Germany). The team ‘Need for Speed by Schubert Motorsport’ will also participate with a strong crew in class GT3. The two experts at the Nordschleife, Claudia Hürtgen (Aachen/ Germany) and Jörg Viebahn (Engelskirchen/ Germany) will share the cockpit of the BMW Z4 with the Hungarian Walter Csaba, Head of the Technical Driving Center at the Hungaroring in Budapest. All the regular drivers in class GT3 will of course also be at the start and the Phoenix Team will finally also be completing again. The Audi R8 LMS will be driven by the local heroes Marc Basseng (Neusalza-Spremberg/ Germany) and Frank Stippler (Bad Münstereifel/ Germany) and Hans-Joachim Stuck will now finally complete the team again. Stuck who lives in Austria has meanwhile completely recovered after his accident at the 6h Race in July and he is very much looking forward to racing at the Nordschleife again. The same applies for Christian Menzel (Kelberg/ Germany), Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) and Patrick Long (USA) as well as for Lucas Luhr (Switzerland), Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg/ Germany) and Arno Klasen (Karlshausen/ Germany), who will drive the two spearheads of the Porsche-Team Manthey-Racing. The group of crews considered to be able to win the race is completed by the two SLS AMG GT3 of Black Falcon and of Mamerow-Racing. After the much noticed first win at the last race, Thomas Jäger (Munich) and Christopher Haase (Kulmbach/ Germany) as well as Bernd Schneider (Bottighofen/ Germany) and Chris Mamerow (Castrop-Rauxel/ Germany) wish to follow up on their success. The two gullwing race cars of Mercedes-Benz will still start in class E1-XP.
A fresh breeze will be blowing in class GT4 with the close-to-production cars due to the two BMW works drivers Dirk Werner (Kissenbrück/ Germany) and Dirk Adorf (Michelbach/ Germany). The duo will drive the new ‘Eifelblitz’ of team manager Johannes Scheid at the finale round, a BMW M3 GT3. The competition in the class should not be underestimated. The two Aston Martin V8 Vantage of ‘Gentle Swiss Racing’ and of ‘Mathol Racing’ are favourites for a victory, just as the Ginetta G50 of ‘Kornmeyer Carbon-Group’, the GT4-Corvette of the team ‘dieselspeed’ and the Porsche 911 entered by the MSC Adenau. Ralph-Gerd Schlüter (Korschenbrioch/ Germany) is hereby supported by the well-known rock musician of the band Rage, Victor Smolski (Beckum/ Germany).
Close duel about the title in the VLN Standard Production Cup
The drivers’ classification in the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring is virtually decided after nine races. Only a penalty of exclusion could still spoil the win of the Bonk-Motorsport duo Mario Merten (Nürburg/ Germany) and Wolf Silvester (Nürnberg/ Germany). If this last round is going to run as scheduled, Merten/ Silvester will become the Champions for the second time as a team after 2006. For Merten, it would even be his third success after winning the title in the year 2002, too. Also uncatchable in the lead of the classification in the VLN Junior Trophy is Black-Falcon driver Carsten Knechtges (Mayen/ Germany). Together with Alexander Böhm (Kelberg/ Germany) and Philipp Leisen (Irrel/ Germany) he will try everything in the finale race to also win the title in the VLN Standard Production Car Cup. For this purpose, the team will change back into class V5 (VLN standard production cars up to 3.000 cc cylinder capacity) for the last race. This is where the team has scored three of the six class victories. Their most serious rivals are Mathias Unger (Heusenstamm/ Germany) and Daniel Zils (Bendorf/ Germany), who have strengthened their team in the BMW Z4 of ‘MOTEC Wheels Team MK- Motorsport’ with the quick junior Tim Scheerbarth (Dormagen/ Germany).
