After the fifth round of the endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring, the VLN draws a positive interim result of the first half of the season. “We have had some exciting races”, says Peter Bröcher (Olpe/ Germany), VLN Sporting Director. “From the sporting side, the participants have provided a fantastic show for all the true fans of our series. In addition to the quality on the race track, the figures are of course of high importance for us as well. And in this field, too, we can observe a good trend mid-season.” The average number of entries received by the organisers of the first five races of the current season was 181 and the average number of starters at each event was 173. Compared to last year, both figures are according to expectations.
The sporting value of the series is in particular demonstrated by the gaps between the top ten in qualifying. The average came up to 13.349 seconds. The closest practice results could be noted at the 43rd Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy. The top ten at this event were separated by only 7.990 seconds. All together, 336 cars in 26 different classes had been at the start of the first five events. The 879 participants came from 36 different countries and 17 of them are female.
The repartition of the cars in the various groups shows a clear picture. The average number of entries in the class of VLN Specials was 99 cars. The classes of VLN standard production cars figured 47 cars on average and 26 in the classes of Cup vehicles. Still 10 cars were entered in group H, which is so popular with the fans, with an upwards tendancy during the past races.
Only one class was so far dominated by one and the same team. Ralf Wiesner (Solingen/ Germany) and Arnold Höppe (Wickede/ Germany) have scored five victories with their Ford Fiesta. To mention also at this point that in one race only, the driver duo had to face competitors in their class. In four races, Wiesner and Höppe had been the only starters in class SP2 and could thus not be beaten. Right two facts are underlined hereby: In the endurance racing championship, there are now as before the thoroughgoing idealists taking part in races at the ‘Green Hell’ only for fun, and this is a good thing. On the other side, there are so close battles in the strong and competitive classes that there is no series winner. Good reasons to look forward to the action in the second half of the season.
