„That was a really perfect race“, said team manager Michel Bonk happily after the highlight of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft, the 6 hour race. Three of the four cars which had been entered for the event won their respective classes in a brilliant way. Furthermore, one of the Bonk crews is heading for the championship title and Peter Bonk (Münster/ Germany) achieved his personal fastest lap time at the Nordschleife. All together, reason enough to extend their day into the night.
The only ones who were not able to score a class win were Joe Kramer (Hamburg/ Germany), Wolfgang Garbrock (Overath/ Germany) and Bernd Tempels (Rastatt/ Germany). They had a really difficult job with their BMW 318iS in class V2. “You must be aware that we have currently practically stopped all the development work on the car”, informs the team manager, “whereas our competitors have clearly upgraded their performance.” So Michael Bonk was happy with their fourth position. “Our three drivers have made the most of the situation and that is simply wonderful.”
The drivers of the LuK-Porsche in class SP6, Peter Bonk, Arvid Steinberg (Stolberg/ Germany) and the team manager himself, have pushed even harder. After six hours race time, the crew with start number 200 finished on top of the podium. They had an advance of a complete lap ahead of the second placed team. A additional nice surprise for the team was that the Porsche 997 GT3 finished in tenth overall place. “The car was simply running absolutely perfect”, was the comment of Michael Bonk. With the time of 8:54,082 minutes, his brother Peter set the fastest lap time ever of the LuK Porsche at the Nordschleife, the team from Münster had never been faster.
Axel Burghardt (St. Ingbert/ Germany), Andreas Möntmann (Memmingen/ Germany) and Jens Moetefindt (Buchholz/ Germany), too, had a fantastic pace over the long race distance of six hours. With 10:23,599 minutes, they achieved the absolutely fastest time in class V3. They were finally rewarded with a class win, one lap ahead of the crew in second place.
In the most competitive class SP3, the advance of Bonk motorsport was even two laps in the end. No one of the 24 rivals in their class was able to go the pace of the BMW Z4 driven by Wolf Silvester (Nürnberg/ Germany) and Mario Merten (Nürburg/ Germany), even though the two drivers encountered some problems after the usual VLN race distance of four hours. “A screw came off at the rear left wishbone”, said Michael Bonk. Driver Mario Merton realized the suspension problem and immediately came to the pits. The problem could be quickly solved and the Z4 was able to rejoin the race. Additionally, the crew also achieved the absolutely fastest time in their class with a time of 9:11,552 minutes.
After their class victory, the duo Merten/ Silvester has also moved up in the points. After deduction of the two results which will not count for the final standing, Bonk motorsport is already into second overall position with a gap of 0.03 points behind the leaders of Raeder Motorsport. The fight for the title will however not be an easy job as the team of Black Falcon is also aiming at gaining the title.
Nevertheless, Bonk motorsport can take it easy now to get prepared for the showdown with the last three races of the season. The VLN has now started its summer break to last over eight weeks and will restart with the seventh round on 25th September.
