The competitors did well show their teeth at the 40th Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy, but finally a Manthey team again was on top of the podium. It was not for the first time that the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR demonstrated its speed and in particular also its reliability in a brilliant way. After the addition of both parts of the race– the fourth round of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring had to be suspended after an accident – Marcel Tiemann (Monaco) and Arno Klasen (Karlshausen) scored the third victory of the season for Manthey-Racing. Into positions two and three followed the Alzen brothers. Jürgen Alzen (Betzdorf), Christian Menzel (Kelberg) and Dominik Schwager (Erdweg) achieved second place in their Porsche 911 GT3 with a gap of 2:48,844 minutes behind. The podium was completed by Uwe Alzen (Betzdorf) and Lance David Arnold (Duisburg) in the fastest Cup Porsche.
”The secret of our success?” asked Tiemann after the race. “A good strategy, short stopping times at the pit stops and hardly any failures in the car, in the team and finally in us drivers.” For his team mate Klasen, this was the 20th overall victory in the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring. “I am as happy with the 20th victory as I was with the first one”, he said happily. “And of course, I am now aiming at the 21st victory – and who knows, maybe in two weeks time already?” After some disappointment in the first three races of the season, the second overall position was balm for the soul of Jürgen Alzen. “I can hardly find any words to describe our feeling of success”, said the team manager from the Westerwald, a region in Western Germany. “My team and I have worked very hard for the project and now finally it is recompensed with a good result.” Due to radio communication problems, the Nordschleife experienced race driver was not able to discuss any tactics: “There was only one motto: Pedal to the metal.” Uwe Alzen celebrated his first place on the podium with his own racing team almost like an overall victory. Together with team mate Arnold, the race driver from Betzdorf achieved the excellent result in the less powerful Cup Porsche due to constant fast lap times. “That was an incredibly perfect race”, said the former DTM driver. “To achieve a place on the podium with a car that costs about one third of the cars used by our competitors has a really great value.” Arnold added: “We have given 105 percent throughout the whole race.”
The fastest GT3 car and another Manthey Porsche was driven by Armin Hahne (Monaco) and Jochen Krumbach (Eschweiler) who finished into fourth overall place. The action behind the top four Porsche was full of variety. Into the position behind followed Roland Rehfeld (Berlin), Reinhold Renger (Rothenburg-Tauber) and Hannu Luostarinen (Finland) in the Kissling-Corvette, Sabine Schmitz, Klaus Abbelen (both from Barweiler) and Dr. Edgar Althoff (Viersen) in the Frikadelli-Porsche, Michael Bäder (Ofterdingen) and Tobias Hagenmeyer (Cologne) in the BMW Z4 V8 as well as Volker Stryzek (Dehrn), Andreas and Ralf Schall (both from Dornstadt) in the Opel Astra V8 Coupé. In the leading group Hermann Tilke (Aachen), Dirk Adorf (Hennef) and Thomas Mutsch (Bitburg) provided a lot of entertainment in the Ford GT entered by Raeder-Motorsport throughout long sections of the race. Local hero Mutsch (Bitburg) set fastest lap time with 8:16,036 minutes but the promising team had to retire two laps before the race end due to an accident.
Suspension of the race due to a heavy accident
In lap 13, the race had to be suspended with the red flag. Michael Schneider (Erkrath) lost control over his Porsche 911 GT3 in the Kallenhard section, crashed through the track boundaries and was sliding down a slope. The driver was responsive immediately after the crash and did not complain of any pain. The recovery, however, turned out to be quite tricky due to the difficult terrain so that the race could be resumed at 16:06hrs only. Schneider was brought to the hospital of Adenau for further medical examination. As a total distance of 3:19:46.283 hours was achieved after the addition of both parts of the race, full championship points were scored for this fourth round of the season.
VLN Honda Junior-Team again on the class podium
For the third time in the current season already, Tim Scheerbarth (Dormagen), Dennis and Kristian Nägele (Lauterstein and Donzdorf) achieved a place on the podium of the Civic Cup class with their Honda Civic Type R. After 19 race laps, the trio of the VLN Honda Junior Team was only beaten by Frank Totz (Brakel) and Peter Kreuer (Cologne). The fastest Seat Leon Supercopa at the 40th Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy was driven to a class victory by Mario Koch (Minden), Thomas Gerling (Uchte) and Harald Hennes (Eschweiler). Winner in the VLN-Specials up to 2.000 cc displacement and fastest driver in a Renault Clio Cup finally was Karl Brinker (Herne).
The teams of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring do not have much time to relax. With the 49th ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen, the fifth round of the season is on the calendar in only two weeks time.
