The „family BMW“ managed its comeback in the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring with a win in class H4. Franz Groß, his son Maximilian and his nephew Hajo Müller have got additional support just in time before the race. With immediate effect, Thomas Müller has joined the team in the blue orange BMW M3, although he cannot offer any blood relationship to the other three drivers. “I think that we have got a good support with Thomas. And it has become necessary to increase the team as I want to change into the Porsche 996 GT3 RSR shortly.”
So for the second round of the season, only the M3 was entered. The team finished the four hours race time in class H4 with an unchallenged victory, also because of the weakening competitors. The strongest rival of the quartet was a newly built BMW M1. The spectacular race car did however not get that far and the family BMW had a clear run.
In practice already, all of the four drivers showed that they were ready to set fast lap times under perfect weather conditions. The team constantly set times below the 10 minutes mark. “If you are not involved in any close battles with the competitors in your class you simply look about the lap times”, said Franz Groß. With 9:53.167 minutes, the BMW set a new personal fastest time during the race at the Nordschleife. A remarkable time for the BMW M3 which has past its prime. The team nevertheless achieved a lap average speed of almost 148 kilometres per hour.
It was hereby not permanently possible to set fast times. Many cars went off the track or were involved in accidents so that yellow flags were shown at particular sections in almost each lap. “It is unbelievable what was going on out there”, said Groß, too, after his turn. The family BMW was fortunately not involved in any incidents during the race. The complete radiator grill had to be replaced just recently as the car had crashed into the guardrails in a practice session. Apart from slight marks on the engine bonnet, there was however nothing more to be seen from the crash and the performance of the M3 was anyhow not affected.
The crew is now preparing the third round on 24th April which will be the last race before the 24-Hour race. The endurance racing championship will thereafter not return to the Nordschleife until 12th of June when Franz Groß intends to bring the Porsche to the start.
