Position 20 in the overall classification of the VLN-Langstreckenmeisterschaft, a win in class SP3 and in the New Renault Clio-Cup: The ADAC-Rundstrecken Trophy at the Nürburgring Nordschleife couldn’t have been better for Karl Brinker. Into position two of the Renault-Clio classification in this eventful race followed Jannik Olivo and Elmar Jurek and in 3rd place Mathias Schläppi and Holger Goedicke.
There was a lot of action going on in this thrilling round of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft which saw 168 cars at the start, amongst which featured 19 Renault Clio. The most convincing performance in this group was shown by Karl Brinker who clearly dominated the Renault Clio group and finished into an impressive 20th place overall amongst the 168 starters in the VLN field and as winner in his class. With position 58 in practice, the driver of the Ring-Racing team had already set quite a distance to his direct Clio competitors. Start position two in the group of the Renault Clio Cup was occupied by the racing team manager Mathias Schläppi from Switzerland and his German team mate Holger Goedicke and position three by the drivers of the TKS team Elmar Jurek and Jannik Olivo, both from Berlin.
Whilst Brinker was quickly pulling away after a strenuous and exciting start of the race, there was a hard battle going on behind him amongst the other Renault competitors. Right in the middle: Mathias Schläppi, TKS driver Jannik Olivo and Dominik Brinkmann of the Schlaug team as well as Michael Schrey. At the beginning of the race, the top two in the championship classification, Olivo and Brinkmann, the latter sharing the cockpit with Knut Wolf, clashed violently. The front part of Olivo’s Clio was damaged in this fight to such an extend that the championship leader had to proceed to a pit stop and despite an extremely quick repair by the team, the car apparently was still suffering. Wolf and Brinkman had to retire later on due a broken tie rod.
The last third of the race became extremely dramatic and hectically due to fog suddenly coming up and heavy rain falls: Almost all of the drivers came to the pits to change to rain tyres. “First of all, when I was at the pits for refuelling, there was a slight drizzle only and I rejoined the race on slick tyres”, reported Brinker. “One lap later, I had to come back to the pits in order to fit rain tyres. I had to push quite hard afterwards to defend the first position in class SP3. Altogether, everything was however running well”, he said relaxed.
On the other hand, the rain falls were to the benefit of the TKS drivers from Berlin: Jurek came to the pits to change tyres one lap before most of the other competitors and this turned out to be the absolutely right decision. “First of all, I was a little afraid that it wouldn’t really start to rain but then it was starting all around so that I could catch some of my rivals”, he said happily. Hereby he passed Holger Goedicke and also Henry Walkenhorst who finished the race on slick tyres. A time penalty of a few seconds was then in addition inflicted on Walkenhorst due to speeding in the pit lane. “If we ignore the time penalty, we can still be quite happy with position four under these circumstances”, commented Walkenhorst later.
Ring-Racing driver Elöd Szarka, partner of Jacques Meyer, had to accept a stop-and-go–penalty. “He overtook under double yellow flags. Fortunately we could nevertheless keep our position”, reported Meyer relieved after he took the chequered flag into fifth position in the Clio classification. Michael Schneider and Lutz Rühl as well as the Ring-Racing drivers Pierre Moret and Renault Sport France test driver Vincent Bayle and finally the trio Helmut and Horst Baumann together with Klaus Niesen followed behind, still ahead of Jörg Walkowski, Benjamin Weidner, John Scherf and the duo Peter Utsch and Frank Dieter Lohmann. Axel Linther stopped the race after he had to come to the pits several times due to technical failure. “We have a problem with the fuel supply”, he explained with disappointment.
The next round of the VLN-Langstreckenmeisterschaft at the Nürburgring is scheduled for 3rd of July. Renault MotorSport Coordinator Bernd Hütter and his team invite again to the Renault Lounge for a get-together the evening before.
