All smiles at Manthey-Racing: Marcel Tiemann (Monaco), Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg) and Arno Klasen (Karlshausen) made the fifth victory in the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring 2009 season clear for the traditional racing team around team manager Olaf Manthey. After 28 race laps at the 32nd RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen, the trio in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR took the chequered flag as race winners. Chris Mamerow (Castrop Rauxel) participated in the seventh round of the season as solo driver in his Porsche 911 GT3 and finished second with a gap of 2:00.180 minutes behind. Armin Hahn (Monaco), Jochen Krumbach (Eschweiler) and Richard Lietz (Austria) in the second Manthey Porsche inherited third position. DTM driver Oliver Jarvis (Great Britain) in the Audi R8 LMS originally crossed the finish line as third overall but then Race Control inflicted a penalty consisting of the cancellation of one race lap onto the Phoenix trio which was completed by Dennis Rosteck (Porta Westfalica) and Nicki Thiim (Rinteln) as Jarvis had overtaken under yellow flags about one hour before the race finish.
After the practice, Mamerow was shown on pole position with a time of 8:16.467 minutes. Right after the start, Sascha Bert (Ober-Ramstadt) in the Dodge Viper entered by Zakspeed-Racing first went into the lead but had to let Mamerow pass again in lap three. The race then ended in advance for the Zakspeed team after lap eight. In a tough battle about place three, Hermann Tilke (Aachen) and Dirk Adorf (Hennef) in the Ford GT as well as Hans-Joachim Stuck (Austria), Frank Biela (Monaco) and Frank Stippler (Bad Münstereifel) in the second Audi R8 LMS also lost a lot of time at the beginning of the fourth lap after a collision and had no more chances to fight for the victory. Mamerow lost his leading position at his first pit stop and from that moment the winning Manthey Porsche made the pace in the leading group.
“Arno did a great stint and Marc could then go into the lead”, informed Tiemann. “When I took over the Porsche, I was able to control and finish the race relatively easily.” Klasen was extremely happy about his 22nd overall win after which is he now shown into fifth position in the result statistics, together with Peter Zakowski: “Each victory is a great experience. When I start a race, I do of course want to win it as well. We’ll see if I will be able to score another victory till the end of the season.” At the end of the Grenzlandrennen, solo driver Mamerow was completely exhausted but happy: “I have given 100 percent over more than four hours. That was a bit much but it was also great fun”, he said. “My car was perfect today and my good first stint was the basic for my position on the podium.”
The fans of the most popular endurance racing series in Europe will certainly continue to talk enthusiastically for a long time about the tough battle between Lietz and Jarvis in the final part of the race. They had a neck-and-neck race over the 24.369 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short connection and the Nordschleife. “I wanted to overtake on the Grand Prix Circuit but then got too much traffic”, informed Lietz. “Oliver was then simply faster on the Nordschleife – as far as I am concerned, I was anyway at my limits.” Once the first disappointment for Jarvis regarding the penalty had gone, the fascination of the “green hell” had became the major aspect in the for the DTM shooting star. “The Nordschleife is a crazy and wonderful race track which cannot be compared with any other circuit on the world”, said the 25 years old race driver. “You must get used to the traffic in the race and you have so incredibly many overtaking manoeuvres in each and every lap.”
Christoph Breuer achieves new record for front-wheel driven cars with the Audi A3 in the timed practice
In the timed practice, Christoph Breuer achieved a new lap record for front-wheel driven cars. The race driver from Nettersheim who was part of the first VLN Honda Junior Team in 2006 broke the magical nine minute limit in his Audi A3 entered by Raeder Automotive with a lap time of 8:56.487 minutes. No front-wheel driven car has ever been that quick in the history of the endurance racing championship. Breuer, together with Elmar Deegener (Stelzenberg) and Jürgen Wohlfarth (Murrhardt), achieved a superior victory in the class of VLN Specials up to 2.000 cc cylinder capacity with turbo chargers.
Derscheid/Flehmer defend the lead in the championship with a fifth class win
With their fifth victory in the class of VLN Specials up to 1.800 cc cylinder capacity, Rolf Derscheid (Much) and Michael Flehmer (Overath) defended their lead in the drivers’ championship classification of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring. Their direct competitors Alexander Böhm (Kelberg), Christer Jöns (Ingelheim) and Sean Paul Breslin (Great Britain) in the Black-Falcon-BMW as well as Marco Wolf (Lohmar), Jürgen and Heinz-Otto Fritzsche (both from Hückeswagen) in the Kissling-Opel-Astra also won their respective classes and will thus remain within reach of the leaders.
Titus with a strong performance at his first participation in the endurance racing championship
In the BMW 218iS entered by Bonk Motorsport, skateboard legend Titus Dittmann, driving in a team with his son Julius and Dag von Garrel (all from Münster), finished into fourth position in the class of VLN production cars up to 1.800 cc cylinder capacity. “That is really cool”, said Titus, who had to fulfil numerous requests for autographs, happily. “The fights in the race were such great fun and I am really very impressed by the close contact to the fans.”
The last third of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring season will begin on 3rd October. The 41st ADAC Barbarossapreis organised by the MSC Sinzig then is on the calendar. The race will have a distance of four hours.
