The preparations for the 2011 season are fully underway at the team Motorsport Sing based in Heidenheim/ Germany as the winter break is finally over. Looking back onto the season 2010, the team from Heidenheim/ Germany is quite happy, have they finally achieved eight positions on the podium with the two race cars, the Mercedes SLK 350 and 190E 2.5-16 EVO II, and finished the 24h Race successfully. The list of results for the SLK after eleven races (10 VLN races and 24h) includes ten results in the final classification and three podium positions. They finished second at the first round, even scored a class win at the 6th race and achieved third place in class V6 at the 9th round.
The SLK 350 was also entered for the 24h Race and the team was quite happy with finishing the race after they had experienced some smaller problems at the beginning which could be sorted out quickly; in particular as fun in participating at this meanwhile prestigious event with a series production car becomes more and more secondary. The drivers of the works cars who are under extreme pressure in the competition very often can hardly show any consideration towards the slower cars and a fair competition is therefore sometimes left behind. Furthermore, the cost increase has come to a level which has become difficult to fund. Team manager Eugen Sing comments: “In particular at night time, the competition is extremely nerve-racking in racing around the Nordschleife with our comparably weak car as you have to watch the rear mirror much more than the track due to the fast works cars. We had finally been very happy that we finished the race safely”.
“We had competed as usual with the good old “EVO II” in class SP4 and with our drivers Eugen Sing/ Friedhelm Mihm and were able to finish five races out of the seven in which we had started and scored five class wins. I must add that the absolutely fastest lap time of 9:23,827 minutes at the last race with a race car completely prepared by ourselves provided a special personal satisfaction for our team”. Regular driver Mihm adds: “It is absolutely cool to set such a lap time with this rather old car and to show again the potential of our car”.
This was anyhow unofficially the last participation of the EVO II for an indefinite time as they are slowly running out of material in form of components and the financial aspect plays an important factor as well. “With the budget invested here, you could compete in a Cup-Porsche for a whole season”, states team manager Eugen Sing with a smile in his eyes which does, however, not impede the fun factor of this race car. “It is always great to race around the Nordschleife with our EVO and to provide a good show for our fans, too”, he adds, “also as a small group of fans around our EVO has meanwhile grown at the Nordschleife and it is exactly these exotic race cars which they want to see.” So it will not be a too big surprise to see the Sing-EVO in 2011 again racing at the Nordschleife one or another time. That, however, remains the team manager’s secret.
For 2011, the team has undertaken to further develop the SLK 350 and to find the right set-up as there is not much to change in the cars in the series production class. The mechanics are however confident to find one or another second in developing a perfect suspension set-up so that they can finally compete against the fast M3. The Nordschleife experienced race drivers Eugen Sing and Friedhelm Mihm will primarily be available for this purpose as they will change from the EVO into the SLK for the current season. They will be supported in their duties by a regular driver of the last two SLK years, junior manager Bertin Sing. Dirk Kauke and Thomas Heinrich, who had been in the SLK team in the last two years will no longer be part of the crew. A great thank you again to them at this point.
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