The highlight of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring, the 6h race organised by the MSC Ruhrblitz Bochum, was all about the Opel emblem, the flash. Kissling Motorsport was waving the flag for the car manufacturer from Rüsselsheim and was able to celebrate a successful race weekend.
‘Turbo’ was the issue in the team of Kissling Motorsport at the seventh round of the 2010 VLN season. For the first time since many years the Fritzsche twins have turned their back on the normally aspirated engine and competed this time with a turbo engine. Heinz-Otto and Jürgen Fritzsche thus followed their team mates of Hannu Luostarinen, Julius Nieminen and Volker Strycek who had proved the reliability and the good performance of the supercharged engine made by Kissling at the previous round with their win in class SP3T.
For Heinz-Otto and Jürgen Fritzsche, the change to the turbo engine meant above all that they had to get adjusted to the new configuration as Jürgen Fritzsche stated accurately: “The range of speeds to be used with the turbo engine is of course totally different. We really had to get ourselves adjusted first and learn how to use the smaller usable speed range.” The fast VLN team succeeded better and quicker than they themselves had expected. Heinz-Otto and Jürgen Fritzsche scored excellent lap times throughout the whole race and got more and more used to the new configuration in the engine compartment. Heinz-Otto Fritzsche confirmed: “We managed it quite well today, although here and there, we could still gain one or another second in driving and in finding a better combination between gas pedal and gear selection.” The Fritzsche twins finished second in the class in which they competed for the first time and 20th overall without any problems.
Happy with the performance of their turbo Astra were also Luostarinen, Nieminen and Strycek. They missed however a bit of luck at this classical race of the VLN series with six hours race duration. Whereas, considering their speed, they would easily have been able to finish in the top group or even to win their class, a generator damage spoiled the performance both of the drivers and of the crew.
So the very strong drivers from Finland and Strycek had to be satisfied with a seventh class position, knowing well that they could have scored a far better result.
Another class win was achieved by the absolute darling of the public which was also managed and serviced at the Nürburgring by Kissling Motorsport. Together with Volker Strycek, who was hardly to be seen outside a racing cockpit during the weekend, Olaf Beckmann and Peter Hass scored a class win again in their Opel Manta decorated with a foxtail and thus made the weekend in the sign of the emblem with the flash perfect.
