If it is about popular motor sports, the Porsche Zentrum Willich is always in the front. The company from Willich supported two teams with the total of three cars at the Nürburgring for the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft. The second round of this championship started last Saturday, on the 18th of April, under challenging conditions.
The two teams did nevertheless not back off due to the rain and the cold. One of these two teams was Frikadelli Racing with drivers Sabine Schmitz, Dr. Edgar Althoff and Klaus Abbelen who competed in a Porsche 997 GT3 RSR. The fast lady in the team, Sabine Schmitz, showed the potential of the powerful race car in the practice session and achieved fourth grid position and first place in class SP7 at the same time. Many more powerful cars did not have any chance against the Frikadelli Porsche.
Shortly after the start, however, Sabine Schmitz dropped back in the field, not because there was a problem with the Porsche but rather because the BMW Alpina B6 in front of her lost a mixture of oil and water which was spread over the windscreen of the red white 997 RSR. “I could hardly see anything and had to do almost three quarters of the lap like flying blind”, explained Schmitz who was happy when she made it to the pits where she also changed to wet weather tyres.
A clever decision as it turned out little later. Sabine Schmitz who lives in the Eifel county nearby the Nürburgring had anticipated the weather correctly so that she could start pushing and catching up at a moment when all the other teams had to return slowly and carefully to their pits in heavy rain to change from dry weather tyres to wet weather tyres. Meanwhile Sabine Schmitz was really in her element and drove the Porsche up into second overall position.
Dr. Edgar Althoff as second driver, though, had to let some competitors pass him. He was fighting with a wrong tyre pressure and thus with an imperfect car. In addition, the radio communication broke down little later so that the dentist from Viersen came back to the pits much later than scheduled for the last change of drivers. Klaus Abbelen, the driver of the last turn, rejoined the race with the correct tyre pressure and with great ambition and fought his way forward up to seventh overall position which was equivalent to second place in the class.
The second team taking part in the races of the endurance racing championship with the support of the company from Willich is AGON Motorsport. The team competes with two Porsche 997 GT3 Cup in the Porsche-Cup class “Cup3”. Start number 702 with Jörn Schmidt-Staade, Jörg Otto and Christian Seewaldt is considered to be the flagship of the team. The only point the fast drivers had to struggle with in the race was the challenging racing conditions. After the rain showers at the beginning, the track dried off especially towards the end of the race which made the tyre choice very difficult. The team, however, managed the situation perfectly and finished into 13th position overall. In their class, they finished on the podium and into third place.
The second AGON Porsche was not that lucky. Stefan Peters, Dirk Torwesten and Stefan Müller suddenly had to fight with gearshift problems. “Unfortunately we do not know why this happened but all of a sudden the gear was blocked”, explained technician Tino Biederbick. After a short pit stop the gearbox worked perfectly again and the three drivers could start to catch up. They finally finished into 7th position in the Cup3 class.
In only two weeks time, on 2nd of May, the next round of the endurance racing championship will start. This third race is at the same time the general rehearsal for the 24 Hour Race taking place mid May at the Nürburgring.
