A six hours thriller in the Green Hell of the Nürburgring: After an exciting race under most difficult weather conditions, Elmar Jurek and Jannik Olivio celebrated their well-deserved victory in the New Renault Clio Cup and their fourth place in class SP3 of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft. Into the positions behind followed: the Renault drivers Karl Raab and Sebastian Lhomer as well as the trio Werner Uetrecht, Alexander Starke and Michael Wellmann.
The awkward weather conditions in the Eifel region during the 6 Hour Race, qualifying round of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft, represented a special challenge also for the drivers in the New Renault Clio Cup. The conditions were getting worse and worse so that exactly scheduled pit stops and the right choice of tyres as well as utmost concentration on the unpredictable Nordschleife were particularly important: “Partly, the track was completely dry and partly it was rain-wet. That was not at all easy”, explains Jannik Olivio from Berlin who, together with his team mate Elmar Jurek, was close on the heels of current Championship leader Karl Brinker – and finally finished the 6 Hour Race with a class victory. The race drivers from Berlin were particularly happy, especially after their retirement in the previous race. A disappointing race, in contrast, had Karl Brinker who shared the cockpit this time with Ring-Racing Manager Uwe Kleen. Kleen had to stop temporarily due to a technical failure in Brinker’s Clio but was finally able to rejoin the race. They anyhow finished into the last place in the classification only. Originally, Brinker – one day before his 50th anniversary – had been quite happy with the partly delicate running of the first lap. “Ten different sections, ten different track conditions, but you must always also have a little bit of luck”, was his comment.
Whilst the start of the 6 Hour Race was accompanied by some drizzle only, heavy rains falling 50 minutes later caused a mess on the track and in the pit lane. This experience was also made by Karl Raab and Sebastian Lhomer who this year participate for the first time in the new Renault Clio Cup – attended by last year’s winner and Renault partner Christian Benz. “It was a poker, but all went well. We could immediately gain some positions”, informed Karl Raab. „No question, I would prefer to sit in the race car myself”, admitted team manager Benz nervously.
Happy faces showed also the Schlaug drivers Werner Uetrecht, Alexander Starke and Michael Wellmann, which have so far not been blessed with success in the championship, as they finished third in the Renault Clio classification this time. “It would be wonderful if at least we saw the chequered flag this time”, said Werner Uetrecht before he started his turn over the Nordschleife in the rain and informed his team: “No special incidents”.
The trio Jacques Meyer, Elöd Szarka and Robert Zehetmayr had to struggle with a handicap in the second half of the race before they took the chequered flag as fifth in the New Renault Clio Cup. The parts of a car involved in an accident flew into their windscreen. “The windscreen is damaged, you can hardly see anything and the windscreen wipers and the fan don’t work”, informed Jacques Meyer who did the third turn in the race. “It is extremely difficult to see where the track is still wet and where it is already dry. In addition, there is a lot of debris on the track. Really very, very difficult”, reported his team mate Robert Zehetmayr.
More than happy was the Ring-Racing trio made up of Helmut Baumann, Klaus Niesen and Markus Lungstrass who finally finished into sixth place. “It was fantastic. The car was perfect and each of us has given everything”, was the enthusiastic summary of Lungstrass. For Klaus Niesen, the weather conditions were perfect: “I like to drive in the rain”, he told.
Excited about their participation in the endurance race of the New Renault Clio Cup were also Markus Lüscher, Pirmin Kamer and Hanspeter Muster from Switzerland. “The Clio is just a fantastic race car”, was the comment of Kamer. The team finally finished the race into seventh place.
An excellent fourth place achieved Carlos Diaz and David Domingo who had come into the Eifel region with their Swiss team manager Mathias Schläppi. The second team of Schläppi Race-Tec with drivers Schläppi, Nicolas Abril and Stig Näs took the chequered flag into ninth place behind Felix Schmitt and Marc Hurler from the drive-a-racecar team. Due to an accident, they had lost the front part of their Cup-Clio and had to do the race “frontless”. Bad luck after an excellent practice and start also for Werner Gloyna, Gunther Gühne and Ralf Völkel who are also serviced by the team drive-a-racecar. They had to finish the race in lap nine.
Not a good race also for the trio Michael Schrey, Michael Küchenmeister and Henry Walkenhorst. They were second when they suffered a technical failure. The drivers Peter Utsch and Frank-Dieter Lohmann as well as Knut Wolf and Marc Beckord from the Schlaug team, too, had to retire in the 6 Hour Race due to an accident.
After the summer break, the Renault Clio Cup season will continue with the next round of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft at the Nürburgring on 29th of August.
