The team Wochenspiegel Team Manthey (WTM-Racing) had a successful start into the endurance racing season at the Nürburgring. Georg Weiss, Michael Jacobs and Oliver Kainz finished the opening race of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring into ninth overall position with their Wochenspiegel-Porsche 997 GT3 and also won class SP7.
The 58th Westfalenfahrt race in the Eifel region was running almost in summer weather. The sun was shining and the temperatures were very agreeable. The track at the Nordschleife during the practice session held in the morning was however still wet in some sections. The conditions then became better at the end of the 90 minutes session so that the fast laps were achieved in the final part only. Oliver Kainz in the Wochenspiegel-Porsche was one of the last drivers in practice and finished into an excellent fourth grid position. “There were still a few wet spots but which I remembered from my previous lap. The lap was not perfect but quite ok.”
Start driver was Oliver Kainz who was able to keep up with the top teams without any big problem. In the eighth lap then, he encountered some problems with the fuel pressure, he had to switch to the reserve pump and come to the pits one lap earlier than scheduled. Due to the necessary repair, the team lost a little more than two minutes. Michael Jacobs who took over the steering wheel was able to move up into the top 10 again. Georg Weiss who completed the last stint was able to keep this position amongst the top ten and was even fighting about position eight with the Pinta-Porsche in the last laps. “That was great fun. I backed however off in the final part as I did not want to push too hard and rather keep a secure ninth place.”
Georg Weiss: “We can be very happy with the start of the season. We could have achieved position six without the fuel pump problems. The whole package is very promising and there is certainly still potential to improve.”
Michael Jacobs: “I felt very comfortable in the car. My lap times were very constant even though not as fast as I had imagined. But the most important thing is that we had a good result to start the season.”
Oliver Kainz: “From the very beginning, I was able to keep up with the top teams without any difficulties. That was great. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of time due to the fuel pressure problems and had to come for a pit stop one lap earlier than scheduled. Nevertheless, a good start of the season so that we can look forward to the next races.”
