The team Derscheid (Much) which had usually been blessed with success had to experience a defeat in the last race of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft: The team lost the last championship race in a heartbeat final and also just missed the Championship title.
For the last time in the current year, almost 180 racing drivers were fighting against the approaching winter, for the last time the competitors in the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft started a race. At temperatures just above the freezing point and in an icy wind, the team Derscheid with drivers Rolf Derscheid (Much) and Michael Flehmer (Overath), too, was ready at exactly 08:30 a.m. on Saturday morning to start the practice of the last race. Michael Flehmer was the first driver in the team and achieved pole position in class V2 after three fast laps, although he complained about a lack of grip due to the track conditions. When Rolf Derscheid continued, the circuit already had much more grip and he was able to defend first position in the class. The joy, however, was of short duration only: The team Derscheid lost the excellent starting position literally in the very last second and had to be satisfied with position two – although they were not really unhappy with the practice result.
Hard but fair
As usual, Flehmer was the start driver and supposed to do the first two of the four scheduled race hours. Starting into second position, Flehmer saw a gap in the traffic after the start, used the space and quickly moved into the lead of class V2. Nonetheless, he was not able to withstand the pressure applied by his rival, he let him pass and followed him close by. Flehmer used the chance several times to go into the lead of the class but was himself overtaken many times. So the lead was changing frequently.
Just in the middle of lap ten and thus two laps too early, the fuel level indicator suddenly flashed up. Flehmer, in the lead at that time, consequently had no chance than to come to an unscheduled pit stop and change to Rolf Derscheid.
The BMW 318is of the Team Derscheid was then overtaken by its rival “in the pits” and team manager Rolf Derscheid rejoined the race into second place. He had to fight very hard lap by lap to close up to the class leaders so that again they entered into a fantastic battle in which the lead between the two rivals changed several times. Unfortunately, the experienced race driver had to come to the pits again in lap 18 due to a lack of fuel. After a refuel stop of a little more than one minute, Derscheid restarted to make the pace. In the last race lap, he had the leader of class V2 directly in front of him, but all attempts to move into the lead on the very last metres failed. And if this were not enough, Derscheid was braking too hard at the last chicane before the finish line and the team thus had to accept being beaten by 0.6 seconds. On the last day of the season 2009, Derscheid did not only loose the race with an incredibly tight gap but also the title with less than a hairbreadth. The racing team based in Much became vice Champion with a gap of only 1.3 points.
By the way: A very large group of guardian angles was on board of Rolf Derscheid’s car when, at the approach to the section „Adenauer Forst“, there was suddenly a hard impact onto the left rear side of his car. A competitor who apparently forgot to brake in the heat of the moment pushed the BMW of Derscheid so that he spun in the difficult and dangerous section and he was pushed across the racing line on only two tyres in direction gravel bed. Derscheid got of lightly from the manoeuvre which ended just in front of the guardrails.
