The new regulations, too, couldn’t stop the successful combination of Porsche plus Manthey. This is the quintessence of the first round of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft where Timo Bernhard and Marcel Tiemann for once more had been the most reliable drivers: The experienced duo crossed the finish line after 27 laps and 4:01:01.014 hours racing time in bright sunshine and created some springtime feelings in the Porsche racing team which has always been dominating during the past years.
”Sorry that we won again”, said Olaf Manthey after receiving the chequered flag in his Porsche 911 RS at the end of the first round of this endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring. “We did not win because we are superior to all the others, but because we have still going at a high basic speed, with a quick team of drivers and in particular with our reliable Porsche 911 race car when our competitors were out due to retirements or accidents.”
It was already on Saturday morning that the decision about the first overall victory of the year turned out to become a tough fight between the race car concepts VLN Specials and FIA-GT3. With the introduction of a new set of regulations for the year 2009, the sports cars of FIA class GT3 are for the first time eligible in the most popular racing series of Europe. The timed practice already revealed that the two categories are well balanced. The statistical figures after the timed practice session showed that there is a competition on a very high level for the top runners as the first eight teams finished within only ten seconds.
Suspense for the race was thus guaranteed – and after the start from position six, Bernhard immediately started to make his way through into the lead and was already found in second place at the beginning of the second race lap. After many of their direct competitors retired with technical problems, the way was clear for Tiemann and Bernhard and the duo was able to get the victory home in a controlled manner. “Our Porsche was running perfectly today although the high loss in performance was clearly to be felt”, said Tiemann. “We must now exactly analyze the data collected in order to add the finishing touches and see where we still can improve.”
Armin Hahne, Jochen Krumbach and works driver Emmanuel Collard took up the challenge on Saturday afternoon with the second spearhead from Meuspath and chased for a position amongst the top five. Hahne was the start driver in the brand new 911 GT3 Cup S and made it into the top ten after a short time. Their way up, however, was spoiled due to a rear right tyre damage, totally unexpected by Hahne and unfortunately just when he joined the Nordschleife. The experienced driver thus lost valuable time on the track on the following almost 20 kilometres until he finally arrived at his pits. They finished two laps behind the winning team: “That was bad luck because we had a good race. I was very happy with my 08:30 lap times. So we will not have a possibility for a reliable comparison of our Cup S with our rivals before the second VLN round.” Although a place on the podium seemed to be unrealistic, Olaf Manthey sent the car back onto the track after a quick repair. “Each kilometre on the track is important, on the one hand for the team as we receive new data and on the other hand for the drivers to become more familiar with the new car.”
Third race car prepared by Manthey-Racing in compliance with the regulations for the ‘Specials’ is in its third year the Wochenspiegel-Porsche. Improved in some details in Meuspath during winter time, the drivers Georg Weiss, Michael Jacobs and Peter-Paul Pietsch raced according to the motto ‘Never change a winning team’. The trio started calmly with a sixteenth position on the starting grid, then accelerated and went on with continuous fast lap times to finally receive the chequered flag into eighth position. “It was great! Georg’s car is simply running perfect – you must see the tyre tread pattern to realize how perfect the setup is”, said start driver Peter-Paul Pietsch gladly, although his team mate Jacobs still found a small problem in the otherwise successful start of the season: “I am however a little vexed that the juniors displaced us from 7th position just before the end of the race, but at least it remains within the MR family. The engine did not start immediately at the last pit stop and that must be where we lost the decisive seconds.”
Apart from the victory in the class of the Specials, the class of the Cup Porsche was also dominated by a car from Meuspath: The first Australian class winner in the history of the endurance racing championship is Rodney Forbes. He won the class of the Porsche Cup cars together with the two Porsche juniors Marco Holzer and Martin Ragginger. “The boys have made a brilliant job and could demonstrate why it was well-founded by Porsche to nominate them as works juniors. It had been obvious from the very beginning that Rodney would not be able to go the pace of Marco and Raggi at his first race, but a seventh position with a genius Cup car deserves respect, in particular as they finished ahead of many much stronger race cars,” Olaf Manthey spoke highly of his drivers. The younger of the two juniors, too, was very happy after the race. “This is my third race only here at the Nordschleife and to finish it with a class victory – that makes you wish for more”, was Marco Holzer’s comment in his way to the prizegiving ceremony.
The second Cup car of Manthey-Racing last but not least finished fifteenth overall. The friends Gary Williams, Daniel Cooke and Julian Perry from England compete in 2009 again at their beloved Nordschleife with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup in the eye-catching 917 design and prepared by Manthey-Racing. For the trio with domicile on Great Britain’s main island racing is primary to have fun as Williams informs; so much the better if in addition they finish in a good position.
