Seventh overall and third in the class – despite the awkward weather conditions which made the choice of tyres a poker game – the Frikadelli Team from Barweiler started the summer break of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring happily.
For the highlight of the season, the fast team managed to get a magnificent support to drive their 997 Porsche which has the longest competition history in the endurance racing championship. Apart from regular drivers Klaus Abbelen, Sabine Schmitz and Dr. Edgar Althoff, Porsche works driver Martin Ragginger joined the team in the public’s favourite race car which is painted in the colours of the Cologne beer brewing company “Früh-Kölsch”.
“The Porsche of Klaus Abbelen and Sabine Schmitz really is a very quick racing car. With some adjustments on the set-up of the car, lap times below 8:30 minutes should certainly be possible”, confirmed the Austrian Ragginger immediately after the timed practice. The practice time of 8:35 minutes should prove him right, the Frikadelli team is on the right track.
Under such a good omen the crew started to the longest round of the season. The 6h Race should turn out to become a very special event. Clouds in all possible colours, between light white and deep black, appeared in the heaven above the longest tarmac rollercoaster of the world. A circuit of 24369 metres, the combination of the GP short connection with the Nordschleife, also implies the danger of different weather zones. Altitude differences of 300 metres between the lowest and the highest points of the track do not really facilitate weather forecasts.
Compared to the previous race, the crew from pit number 8 including its drivers this weekend had a far better connection to heaven. The weather makers did not have bad surprises, the weather was playing for the team with start number 125. From the very start of the race, the Friko-Porsche thus had only one thing in mind: to push forwards. All the four drivers hereby benefited from the perfect technical preparation by the team of the former Supercup-Porsche during the previous weeks at their base in Barweiler. The racing car completed lap by lap without any problem, they improved from 16th position on the grid up into seventh overall position.
The target for all participants at this marathon of the endurance racing championship yet first of all was to take the chequered flag. All of the four drivers of the Frikadelli-Racing-Team hereby contributed his or her part to this aim. They were driving in a reasonable way, in cases of doubt backing off, and completed 38 laps without causing any damage on their Porsche.
