The exciting 2012 season of the VLN endurance racing championship will be concluded on 27th October 2012 with the last round, the 37th DMV Münsterlandpokal. And the scenario at the show down in the ‘Green Hell’ could hardly be more fascinating as the decision in the Championship will be not be made until this last race of the year. Three teams still have the chance to win the title and they all will try everything to press for a decision in their favour. The motor sport mix at the VLN final will be completed by the FALKEN Drift Show presenting exciting drift action between the timed practice in the morning (08:30 to 10:00hrs) and the race (12:00 to 16:00hrs) and starting at 10:30hrs in the Mercedes Arena of the Grand Prix Circuit. The entry all around the Nordschleife is free of charge. Access to the open grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit, to the paddocks and to the starting grid will be possible upon payment of the family-friendly fee 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. Further information around the endurance racing championship can be found in the internet on the official website www.nuerburgring-langstrecken-serie.de as well as in Facebook under www.facebook.com/vln.de.
The situation before the final is clear: The best chances to win the title have Ulrich Andree (Cologne), Dominik Brinkmann (Dortmund/ Germany) and Christian Krognes (Norway). The driver trio has constantly scored points with their Volkswagen Scirocco of the team LMS Engineering in seven races as they are competing in the class of VLN Specials up to 2000 cc cylinder capacity with turbo, a class which figures a great number of competitors. Only 80 percent of the races on the endurance racing calendar which have actually taken place will be taken into consideration for the final classification so that the team can get over their two failures at the third and at the sixth round. They must, however, win their class as the two race drivers from Berlin, Elmar Jurek and Jannik Olivo, are only very close behind. The driver duo with the Renault Clio has dominated the class of Renault Cup race vehicles. As a consequence of the lower number of starters in their class, they have scored less points so that a third place would already be sufficient for Andree, Brinkann and Krognes to take the title into the capital city of Germany, also after disregarding two results. The same applies to the current leaders in the championship, Marcel Belka (Lehrte/ Germany) and Norbert Bermes (Krefeld/ Germany). With the Aston Martin Vantage entered by AVIA Racing, the team has scored seven victories in class GT4 which, however, figured clearly less cars on the average than the classes of their competitors.
“It doesn’t matter who will finally take the title – the new Champions underline our extremely popular sport at highest level, for which the VLN stands”, says VLN Chairman Rolf Krimpmann (Gladbeck/ Germany). “Even though the top cars are in the focus at the single races, it had always been the middle-ranking teams of the series fighting for the championship. And quite often it is finally the small private teams which take over the place of the big ones. This fact contributes to a great part to the unique character of the series.”
A wind of change in the big classes
BMW will again be strongly represented at the last race of the year at the Nordschleife. The teams Schubert and Marc VDS Racing will together bring three BMW Z4 GT3 to the start. Whilst the Belgian crew will be made up of drivers Markus Palttala (Finland) and Maxime Martin (Belgium), Philipp Wlazik (Gladbeck/ Germany) and Niclas Kentenich (Neuss/ Germany) will make their debut in the competitive Coupé from Bavaria, supported by Uwe Alzen (Betzdorf/ Germany). All together, more than 23 vehicles are entered in class GT3. A touch of colour in the endurance racing series will hereby be provided by Allan Simonsen (Monaco) and Dominik Farnbacher (Ansbach/ Germany). In the class which is normally dominated by Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of the team Cyber Racing AMR will offer a welcome diversion. This is also the guiding principle for the participation of the P4/5 Competizione of James Glickenhaus. Entered by Global Partner Enterprise SA, Nicola Larini, Fabrizio Giovanardi (both from Italy) and Manuel Lauck (Lebach/ Germany) will compete in the race. The team of VLN partner ROWE is for the first time represented by three Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. In addition to the two regular cars with start numbers 6 and 7 and driven by Michael Zehe (Flörsheim-Dalsheim/ Germany), Marko Hartung (Wallroda/ Germany) and Roland Rehfeld (Blankenfelde/ Germany) as well as by Jan Seyffarth (Querfurt-Leimbach/ Germany) and Alexander Roloff (Berlin/ Germany), the cockpit of the car with start number 21 will be shared by Klaus Graf (Domhan/ Germany) and Thomas Jäger (Munich). Mamerow-Racing will celebrate a comeback in the series. The Audi R8 LMS will be driven by Chris Mamerow (Castrop-Rauxel/ Germany) and none other than the fresh Champion of the Porsche Carrera Cup, René Rast (Stolzenau/ Germany).
There will definitely be a tough fight about the title as, in addition to the teams mentioned above, Manthey Racing, Phoenix Racing, Haribo Racing, Black Falcon, Falken Motorsports, Frikadelli-Racing, Timbuli Racing, Pinta Racing and Raeder Motorsport will of course also join the action. And all of them wish to score a top result at the Nordschleife before the winter break.
