The preparations for the racing comeback of Walter Röhrl (63) at the 24 Hour Race Nürburgring are speeding up. On occasion of an appointment for the setting of the seat in the Porsche Motorsport Centre at Weissach, the double Rally World Champion met his team mates with whom we will share the cockpit of a standard production Porsche 911 GT3 RS on 15th and 16th May. The former DTM driver Roland Asch (59) as well as the journalists Horst von Saurma-Jeltsch (55) and Chris Harris (35) know the Nürburgring Nordschleife like the back of their hands and have competed in this most important long distance race in Germany already several times.
As a preparation for the 24 Hour Race in May, Röhrl and his team mates intend to start with their 450 HP strong Porsche 911 GT3 RS at two VLN races. “We will definitely get used to the track and to the car as well very quickly”, confirms Röhrl, “We will, however, have to train the pit stop procedures a little. After all, my last driver’s change in a race dates back some 17 years.”
The double DTM Vice Champion Roland Asch has taken the start to the 24 Hour Race in the Eifel region more than a dozen of times. In 2004, he finished fifth overall. The race driver from Swabia started his career in the Porsche make cups. In the Porsche 944 Turbo Cup, Asch was considered to be almost unbeatable and won the Championship three consecutive times. He became Champion in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany in 1991. For the season 2010, Asch has already successfully participated one race marathon: He competed in the 24 Hour Race of Dubai with a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and was for a long time fighting for the lead until he had to retire.
Already when Horst von Saurma-Jeltsch started his racing career in 1987, Asch was his team mate in the 944 Turbo Cup. The Nürburgring Nordschleife quickly became the favourite race circuit of the chief editor of the trade journal “sport auto”. Since 1988, he has taken the start to the 24 Hour Race Nürburgring already twenty times. In 2001, the 55 years old race driver shared the cockpit of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS amongst others with Porsche works driver Timo Bernhard. In his capacity as journalist, von Saurma regularly attends and participates in test sessions at the Nordschleife and set a lap record with a Porsche Carrera GT in 2004.
In 1999, the British motor journalist Chris Harris had his first participation at the Nordschleife. He competed in the 24 Hour Race four times, for the last time in 2007 in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. In the season 2008, Harris finished into tenth place of the endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring (VLN) with the Nine Eleven. In his participations as a guest driver in two races of the Carrera Cup Great Britain, he finished sixth and seventh overall respectively.
