With their class win at the sixth round of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft, the team Derscheid Motorsport (Much) went into the lead of the Championship. In a hard fight with the adverse weather, the crew always kept their nerve and control.
After the timed practice over 1.5 hours at the 6th round of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft, the team Derscheid Motorsport (Much) was shown into first place in the class of series production cars up to 1850 cc. With an advance of almost one second, the drivers Michael Flehmer (Overath) and Rolf Derscheid (Much) won the qualifying of the championship highlight, the 6h Race. Not even the leaky gearbox could stop the team which is meanwhile pampered by success: In a brilliant team work, the mechanics managed to change the leaky gearshift box in a time of only 40 minutes so that start driver Michael Flehmer was able to cross the Line for the first time at racing speed at 12:10 hours exactly.
After a little more than 45 minutes race duration, it started to rain as had been forecast and Michael Flehmer had to come to the pits in lap six to fit rain tyres. Rolf Derscheid continued the race on the wet weather tyres and was faced with an extremely wet track. The rain showers lasted a little less than one hour in which a hard battle about the lead in class V2 was going on. There were several changes in the lead before Derscheid returned to the pits again after his ninth lap in order to change back to slick tyres as the racing line had meanwhile dried up. After four hours race duration, Derscheid Motorsport had already gained an advance of one lap. In lap 22, the team proceeded to the last change of drivers and Michael Flehmer started the final turn in the BMW. Despite the additional pit stop, the crew kept the lead in class V2 and finally finished with an advance of almost two laps. The BMW 318is took the chequered flag into 59th overall position amongst the total of more than 180 starters.
The duo Derscheid / Flehmer scored maximum points and thus finally went into first place of the championship which shows more than 700 drivers in the classification. In the last weeks, both drivers had already been lying in wait amongst the top ten. In the now following summer break, the team will carefully take all preparations for the four races to come. The next round of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft will take place on 29th of August.
”This time, the mechanics contributed the greatest part to the victory: In an extremely strong team work, the guys managed to change the gearbox within 40 minutes only and thus made it possible for us to start from the grid”, said Rolf Derscheid, team manager and driver. “If it had taken longer, we would have had to start from the pit lane and the fight for the win in our class would have been much more difficult. I have this time myself laid the foundation for the success with my defensive driving in the rain and the well-timed change to slick tyres. It will be difficult to remain in the lead of the classification as there are less and less cars starting in our class and fewer points are hence awarded. We will however do our very best to defend our position.”
