At the final round of the 2009 BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring 2009, the team race&event which is based at Radevormwald achieved a position on the podium for the 13th time during the current season out of 15 possible podium wins. “Our BMW was always perfectly prepared and the Honda, too, was very reliable throughout the year. I must address a very big thank you to the complete team for this fantastic and successful season 2009”, said Heinz Schmersal after the tenth and last race of the endurance racing championship. “But even the most perfect cars are of no use without quick drivers”, added team manager Martin Mohr.
This time, Heinz Schmersal and Christoph Koslowski, both from Wuppertal, shared the cockpit of the BMW Z4 M-Coupé. Stephan Rösler was detained by work and Mike Stursberg participated with Hans-Guido Riegel in the Porsche-Cup class again. Regular driver Eckhard Geulen shared the steering wheel in the Honda S2000 for the first time with Hisonao Kurato from Japan.
In practice already, Koslowski and Stursberg attracted attention with new personal fastest times. With a time of 8:50.710 minutes, Chris Koslowski finally broke the nine minutes mark very clearly. “It was a brilliant lap and absolutely great fun”, said the man from Wuppertal happily. “It could even have been better: I had to brake very hard at an accident in the section Schwalbenschwanz and there is also still some more potential in one or another corner.” Mike Stursberg in the 911 Porsche also improved his time by about ten seconds and set a lap time of 8:39,116 minutes. “Super, a great result in this final practice session. The new tyres went very well. Once you have got used to this car, you would never want to stop racing”, Stursberg informed happily after he had finished the practice in the leading group of the very competitor Porsche Cup class.
Chris Koslowski then took the start and had an excellent race. Into second position of the Specials up to 3500 cc, he changed to Schmersal after nine laps, before he finally went back into the race car to do the last eight laps. “The weather today was super, the car was top and out of seven starts in the BMW, we have finished amongst the top two for the sixth time. Things could well go on this way – I am already looking forward to the year 2010!” was the summary of Schmersal.
Everything was looking very well for start driver Ecki Geulen, too. The man from Bonn in the Sorg BMW 325i had an exciting fight about the lead in the class of the Specials up to 2500 cc before he had to retire in lap seven due to a sudden engine and gearbox failure in the section of Metzgesfeld. The rear axle blocked and it was impossible to continue. “This was the eighth start this year in this race car. After seven results on the podium a technical failure for the first time, this can happen in motor sports”, said Mohr.
Stursberg/Riegel, too, should not finish the race in their Porsche. Start driver Riegel lost fifth gear just before the driver change. When Stursberg took over the car after lap eight, he had to return to the pits after a short lap over the Grand Prix circuit. “Fifth and sixth gears, too, are damaged, unfortunately that was a short race”, said Stursberg.
Mid-January, race&event will start again at the 24 Hours of Dubai. Heinz Schmersal, Christoph Koslowski, Stefan Rösler and Mike Stursberg will then drive a Porsche GT3 Cup entered by the team of Peter Schmidt.
