The last round of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft was more than just the final race of the 2009 season for the team of Dörr Motorsport: They had the possibility to celebrate their second hat-trick. But finally, everything turned out to be different.
The Eifel region welcomed the racing team Dörr Motorsport from the federal state of Hesse to the last round of the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft 2009 with temperatures just above the freezing point and with an icy wind. This should however turn out to be the smaller disaster of the ones which were to follow. First of all, the mechanics, drivers and team managers were busy with a damaged ABS control unit. The part already caused problems in the BMW Z4 Coupé during the free practice session on Friday – and finally the control unit failed completely. It was on Saturday morning only that the component could be replaced due to the organisational skills and the dexterity of all the mechanics.
When Rudi Adams (Ahütte) started the practice in the morning at 08:30 exactly, the ABS still was not working properly and could only be adjusted every time between the laps. With extremely soft tyres, Adams was able to set quite a good time in his first practice lap, but in his second lap already the tyres were at the limits and without the ABS, Adams was much more sliding than controlling the car. Stefan Aust (Münster) completed one practice lap in the car but he on his part then experienced some problems to get the tyres onto temperature. After the adjustments, the ABS at least was working at this time to some extend. Luca Ludwig (Bornheim), too, who was the third driver again in the Dörr-Coupé this weekend, completed only one practice lap, also complained about a lack of grip but experienced no more technical problems. When the track temperature increased a little and there was less traffic on the circuit, Rudi Adams went out again for another lap. With a lap time of 8:34 minutes, he pushed the car from the middle field of class SP6 into first grid position and in 17th place overall. For comparison: With a time of 8:50 minutes, the second in that class was far behind into 30th overall grid position.
Slight collision, heavy consequences
Rudi Adams was the start driver and wanted to gain a certain advantage for the team right at the beginning of the race. First of all, the strategy was successful. Adams completed one fast lap after the next and set a big distance to his competitors. Just before the end of his stint, however, he had a slight collision with a car to be lapped. When the Coupé came to the pits after lap nine to change the steering wheel to Stefan Aust, they had some problems in changing the wheels: The rear right wheel could not be removed and it took 24 minutes for the mechanics to repair before Aust was able to rejoin the race, trying to fight a lost battle. After a few kilometres only, the first consequential damage of the collision: The right rear wheel came off and Stefan Aust had to return to the pits at walking speed. The mechanics started again to repair the damaged wheel – again the Coupé stopped at the pits for several minutes before Aust was sent back into the race. But the joy about a now perfectly running car was of short duration only, as they got problems again with the wheel suspension which came loose and again compelled Aust to proceed slowly back to the pits. The mechanics again worked for many minutes on the BMW, discovered the problem and sent Stefan Aust back onto the track for the last time. The car was now running perfectly as confirmed the lap times. Stefan Aust from Münster set two lap times below nine minutes – personal record! The competitors nevertheless had moved away by that time and Dörr Motorsport had no chanced to catch up.
A last pit stop was scheduled for lap 17 when Luca Ludwig took over the Z4 Coupé for the remaining laps. No problems with the car and Ludwig was able to set constant fast lap times which were clearly below nine minutes. He had however to complete his laps without any chance of a place on the podium. The gap of the usually very successful BMW of Dörr Motorsport was too big.
