Golden autumn days in the ‚Green Hell’

It is common use in the Rhineland to speak of a tradition already after the first repeat. Following this guideline, the home game of the ROWE gullwing race cars can in good conscience be defined as a tradition as the DMV 250 Miles Race organised by the AC Monheim will for the second time in a row figure VLN sponsor ROWE Mineralölwerke in its title. Accordingly, the two Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 will compete in the race with some top driver crews. In car number 6, the team has entered the drivers Marko Hartung (Wallroda/ Germany) and Christian Hohenadel (Illingen/ Germany) to support ROWE boss Michael Zehe (Flörsheim-Dalsheim/ Germany). The steering wheel in the sister car with number 7 will be shared between Jan Seyffarth (Querfurt-Leimbach/ Germany), Nico Bastian (Frankfurt/ Germany) and Thomas Jäger (Munich). Their target is clear – to score an overall win for the second time in the current season. Further to the ROWE team, there will be more than 180 cars on the grid to start the eighth round of the VLN endurance racing championship running over four hours at the most beautiful and demanding race track of the world. Entrance all around the Nordschleife is free. Access to the paddocks and to the grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit will be granted for the family-friendly price of 15 Euro per person; young people up to 14 years of age have free access. The race will be started at 12 o’clock exactly and the decision about the best positions on the grid will be decided in the timed practice between 08:30 and 10:00hrs.

In addition to the two SLS AMG GT3 of the team ROWE Racing, the list of the top crews reads first class again. The Porsche 911 GT3 R of the team Falken Motorsports with drivers Martin Ragginger (Austria) and Sebastian Asch (Ammerbuch/ Germany), the SLS AMG GT3 of the team Black Falcon driven by Andreas Simonsen (Sweden) and Marc Basseng (Neusalza Spremberg/ Germany), the Nissan GT-R with Michael and Tobias Schulze (both from Weißenfels/ Germany) and finally the Audi R8 LMS ultra of the team Phoenix-Racing with drivers Frank Stippler (Bad Münstereifel/ Germany), Ferdinand and Johannes Stuck (both from Munich), they all will celebrate a comeback in the GT3 class at the ninth VLN race of the season. The BMW T4 GTS entered by the PIXUM Team Schubert in contrast will make its debut. The sports coupé is a prototype prepared in accordance with the SP8 regulations and exclusively designed for customer use. It comprises components of the Z4 models of the previous three years. The engine is based on the 4.4 litres engine from the BMW M3 GTS whereas the aerodynamic devices come from the 2010 model of the Z4 GT3, optimized for the special requirements at the Nordschleife. The drivers Peter Posavac (Essen/ Germany), Anders Buchardt (Norway) and Dominik Baumann (Austria) will make their VLN racing debut. The team of the Motopark Academy which is based in the vicinity of Schubert Motorsport at Oschersleben will also come to the Nürburgring to compete in the race. The team around Timo Rumpfkeil (Oschersleben/ Germany) who himself will be part of the driver crew has for the first time this year entered a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in class SP7 (VLN Specials up to 4,000 cc cylinder capacity). He will be joined by Christian Bracke (Essen/ Germany), Markus Pommer (Neckarsulm/ Germany) and Tomas Pivoda (Czech Republic).

Rapper Smudo to race again at the Nordschleife
A prominent starter in the VLN endurance racing championship will again be on the grid at the ROWE 250 Miles Race. Rapper Smudo (Hamburg) of the band and ‚Die Fantastischen Vier’ will share the cockpit of the Biodiesel driven Volkswagen Scirocco with Thomas von Löwis of Menar (Reutlingen/ Germany) and Daniel Schellhaas (Mössingen/ Germany). Whilst the bioconcept-car had to pause at the last race because it was at the same time presented at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, it will now come back to its originally designated use at the Nordschleife.

Class in the championship lead with almost equal numbers of competitors
The question about the championship decision is now, two races before the end of the season, more and more getting into the spotlight. The classes of the three leading teams in the current standing figure approximately the same numbers of competitors for this penultimate race. Provided all of the protagonists win their respective class, they will all be awarded almost identical points so that big differences may only arise if one or another is going to make mistakes. The championship leaders Dirk and Tim Groneck (both from Melle/ Germany) will start in the Renault Clio Cup class, for which 14 entries have been received so far. The class of Elmar Deegener (Stelzenberg/ Germany) and Christoph Breuer (Nettersheim/ Germany) driving an Audi TT RS 2.0 will figure the same number of competitors. The provisional entry list currently shows twelve cars in the class of Georg Weiss (Monschau/ Germany), Oliver Kainz (Kottenheim/ Germany) and Michael Jacobs (Roetgen-Rott/ Germany) driving a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of the Wochenspiegel Team Manthey.