As usual, Fleper Motorsport presented the programme for the 2010 season on the last weekend of January. Everybody was particularly curious to see the unveiling of the announced new special race car, which was completely covered by drapery, for the VLN endurance racing championship 2010.
Before however, team spokesman Manuel Fleper presented the real stars of the evening to the media representatives and to the 200 invited guests and referred to the pit crew which was in attendance: “After a difficult season, this crew stands closer together than any other team crowned with success. Our special potential is our team spirit. We are hungry and ready to face new challenges.” Looking back onto the last season, special thanks had to be expressed to the industry and service partners. Regarding the tense general economical situation and regarding the rather poor sporting résumé, the degree of permanent engagement provided had been anything else than self-evident. All the partners will nevertheless continue to support the team Fleper Motorsport in future. “We wish to thank our many fans as well and we hope you will further remain loyal towards us”, added Fleper.
The first crew of the team will be composed of the regular drivers in the Fleper team Marcel Hoppe (Lennestadt), Harald Thönnes (Mülheim-Kärlich) and Meik Utsch (Siegen). In March, the highly motivated trio will start the competition in the class of the two litres Specials with the brand new bilious green Honda Civic Endurance SP. The race car presented unites the experience of the team gained from the previous Special projects with the targeted further developments specific for endurance racing under the aspect of technical reliability. “We wish to establish ourselves with this car in the top of class SP3 which will probably face the best entry with about 30 cars and we also wish to continuously collect points in order to finally finish in one of the top championship places”, was the clear message of Jan Fleper, Technical Director of the team, for the coming season.
In the second Fleper crew, the well-known team doctor Dr. Joachim Steidel (Recklinghausen) will be completed by new partners for the new VLN season. A great chance will be given to the 22 year old youngster Marcel Hartl (Stuttgart). Another new team member will be Thorsten Wolter (Berlin) to complete the Peugeot trio. Their race car will be a black 207 RC Turbo to compete in the 1.6 litres turbo class of the VLN Specials. The main target of the two newcomers is above all to collect experience and to develop their own racing performance at the side of the experienced Steidel.
The cockpit of a Renault Clio RS III for the long distance races will be shared by Herbert von Danwitz (Tönisvorst) and his Russian partner Sergey Matveev (Perm). As the average of the numerous Clio Cup cars shows a high level of performance, the two drivers will have to face hot battles and nerve-racking bumper-to-bumper fights within a challenging field. Before Fleper Motorsport will start its 24th endurance racing season on 27th March, the official “VLN test and set-up session” at the Nürburgring Nordschleife on 20th March, the general rehearsal for all of the three crews, is on the schedule after some first roll-outs with the new race car.
