The first half of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft 2009 season will finish with the 49th ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen to take place on 27th June. This fifth round of the year does hereby not only complete the first half of the season which has so far been peppered with a lot of suspense. Additional action on the race track will be provided by a new dream team in the second Audi A8 of Phoenix-Racing and with the comeback of the two Porsche works drivers Wolf Henzler (Nürtingen) and Timo Bernhard (Dittweiler) in the Manthey Racing team. The organising Dortmunder MC expects to receive about 170 entries which underlines the stable statistics about the number of participants in this unique racing series at the Nordschleife, even in the current times of the financial and economic crisis.
Prominent race drivers will join class GT3 for this fifth championship race of the year. Hans-Joachim Stuck (Austria), Marc Basseng (Leutenbach) and Frank Biela (Monaco) will start in an Audi R8 LMS. The target of this strong team is definitely to gain an overall victory. Already at the last round before the 24h Race at the Nürburgring, the Audi triumph was within reach. And at this classical endurance race itself, the sports cars from Ingolstadt had been the only ones which could permanently keep up with the pace of the Manthey Porsche. The two ex-champions share the cockpit with Basseng who is since a few years considered being one of the quickest race drivers at the Nürburgring. But even if the Audi R8 is driven by absolutely top-class race drivers – you have to earn a victory at the Nordschleife first. And there is a number of other teams who wish to take part when the trophies are awarded. Despite strong races in the last weeks, Dirk Adorf (Hennef) and Hermann Tilke (Aachen) still have not been able to score a good result so far. Since long, nobody is any more in doubt about the good performance of the Ford GT entered by Raeder-Motorsport. And as it is well known from the two drivers that they will not to burry their heads in the sand, it is only a question of time until the desired success is achieved. Manthey regular driver Marcel Tiemann on his part has already been able to enjoy success this year well enough. With three overall victories in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, the adopted Monegasque is currently in the lead of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft drivers’ championship. Tiemann’s team in the nine-eleven is alternatively completed by Arno Klasen (Karlshausen) and works driver Bernhard. The Manthey team has yet got another iron in the fire with drivers Armin Hahne (Monaco), Jochen Krumbach (Eschweiler) and Henzler. The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S will start in class GT3 and has thus the same level of power as the Audi R8 and the Ford GT. Apart from the teams which have achieved an almost professional level in the endurance racing championship, the well-known private teams will of course also be at the start. The BMW M3 „Eifelblitz” of Johannes Scheid will be driven by Rodney Forbes (Australia) and Marko Hartung (Wallroda) at the 49th ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen. There will be no changes in the teams of the Kissling Corvette, the Getrag BMW Z4 M Coupé, the Frikadelli-Porsche, the Opel Astra V8 Coupé of father and son Schall as well as the two teams of brothers Jürgen and Uwe Alzen.
Semi-season follow-up of the championship lead
As already mentioned above, Tiemann is in the championship lead after four of ten rounds of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring. This is exceptional as the series winners usually came from the smaller classes. It was in 1999 for the last time that a top team won the championship. In that year, Tiemann’s father Hans-Jürgen, together with Peter Zakowski, achieved ten overall victories in their Chrysler Viper. With Marco Schelp (Berlin) and the duo Michael Flehmer (Overath) and Rolf Derscheid (Much), two teams are currently found into second championship position, each of them having scored three class victories so far. They are followed by Luca Ludwig (Bornheim) and Rudi Adams (Ahütte) as well as last year’s champion Alexander Böhm (Kelberg) and have already moved up again into fourth championship place after a weak result.
The fans as usual in the centre
Spectators can experience fascinating motor sport firsthand in the paddocks and on the open grandstands around the Grand Prix Circuit for family-friendly 12 Euro (children up to 14 years of age have free entry). Entry is free all around the legendary Nordschleife. After its introduction at the last race, the free premium service DVB-T will be carried on. The action on the race track can be observed in sound and vision all around the Nürburgring through each commercially available DVB-T receiver on four digital TV channels. The timed practice of the fifth race of the year is scheduled to take place between 08.30 a.m. and 10.00 a.m. and the 49th ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen over the four hours distance will start at 12 o’clock exactly.
