A first class starting grid is about to open up the last third of the VLN endurance racing championship season at the Nürburgring on occasion of the 44th ADAC Barbarossapreis organised by the MSC Sinzig. The entry list already attracts a lot of attention. The headlines could for example be “Patrick Pilet in the Manthey team”, “Comeback of the Haribo Porsche”, “Nordschleife heroes together in an Aston Martin”, “Busch twins rely on Audi R8”, “Georg Weiss will not give in”, “Arne Hoffmeister with the raceunion Teichmann Racing team“, “Skateboard legend Titus Dittmann at the start again” and “Rock start Victor Smolski relies on alternative fuels”. Without any doubt, a lot of topics for discussion and the protagonists will certainly do everything in their power to follow up the words with action during the four hour race. Entrance all around the Nordschleife is free. Access to the open grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit, to the paddocks and to the starting grid will be available at the family-friendly price of 15 Euro per person. Children up to 14 years of age have free entry. Tickets will be available on-site at the cash boxes. All kind of information around the endurance racing championship is available in the internet on the official website www.nuerburgring-langstrecken-serie.de as well as on Facebook under www.facebook.com/vln.de.
There are right two good news from the team of Manthey Racing. Georg Weiss (Monschau/ Germany) will keep his chin up after the incident around the 6h Race. During a test at the Nordschleife, his brand new Porsche 911 GT3 RSR had literally ended in smoke. The motor sport enthusiastic businessman did the only possible and right thing, he quickly ordered a new car. For lack of a finished model, the Manthey team ordered an assembly set which was set up to a race car during the past days. If nothing will spoil their plans, the Wochenspiegel Team Manthey will compete in the Barbarossapreis race with the regular drivers Weiss, Oliver Kainz (Kottenheim/ Germany) and Michael Jacobs (Roetgen/ Germany). The second good news from Meuspath: At the eighth VLN round, Porsche will achieve the one hundred percent Nordschleife quota for their works drivers. Along with Jochen Krumbach (Eschweiler/ Germany) and Timo Bernhard (Dittweiler/ Germany), Patrick Pilet (France) will make his racing debut at the ‘Green Hell’. All of the current Porsche works drivers will then have incorporated the most beautiful and most demanding race track of the world in their vitae.
Dennis and Marc Busch (Bensheim/ Germany) will celebrate a debut. The fast twins will for the first time compete in an Audi R8 LMS in class SP9 (GT3 cars). The car has recently attracted a lot of attention at the test and set-up sessions organised around the endurance racing championship which shall now be followed by its debut in racing. A rival of the debutant is the Haribo Porsche which will celebrate its comeback after some successful excursions in European GT3 Sport races. Hereby, Mike Stursberg (Wermelskirchen/ Germany), Hans Guido Riegel (Bonn/ Germany) and Richard Westbrook (Great Britain) wish to follow up their good results – amongst others at the 24 Hour Race of Spa-Franchorchamps. A fresh wind in the Porsche Cup class will be provided by Arne Hoffmeister (Lutter/ Germany). The participant in the Opel OPC Race Camp was part of the successful team which achieved second place at the 24h Race 2012 in the Astra OPC. In the current season, he has gained experience in the Audi A3 of the team PROsport Performance as well as in a BMW Z4 M-Coupé entered by Dörr-Motorsport. Hoffmeister will start at the Barbarossapreis race together with sports car experienced driver Markus Palttala (Belgium) in a Porsche 911 Cup of the team raceunion Teichmann Racing.
An accumulation of experience at the Nordschleife with a total of about 100,000 laps at the ‘Green Hell’ is represented in an Aston Martin Vantage V12. Upon invitation of Wolfgang Schuhbauer (Brilon/ Germany), Head of the Aston Martin Test Centre at the Nürburgring, Andreas Gülden (Reifferscheid/ Germany) and Volker Strycek (Dehrn/ Germany) will share the cockpit of the British super sports car. Two personalities who have gained a lot of reputation also outside their motor sport activities will compete against each other in class SP11 reserved gas driven vehicles and vehicles running with alternative fuels. Skateboard legend Titus Dittmann will start together with his son Julius (both from Münster/ Germany) in his gas-driven Chrysler Viper. His famous rival is rock star Victor Smolski (Beckum/ Germany) of the Band Rage. The musician will share the cockpit of the BMW M3 with David Schiwietz from Remscheid/ Germany.
