Debut at the endurance racing championship: At the third round of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring, the Hankook-Team Farnbacher achieved the first victory for Ferrari in the 35 years of history of the series. At the first of two 6 Hour Races of the season, the 42nd Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy, Marco Seefried (Wemding/ Germany) and Jamie Melo Junior (Brazil) crossed the finish line after 40 laps as race winners. “This is simply cool”, was the comment of the happy team manager Horst Farnbacher who insisted on celebrating their success together with his drivers on the podium. Their advance ahead of the second placed Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg/ Germany), Timo Bernhard (Dittweiler/ Germany) and Arno Klasen (Karlshausen/ Germany) in a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR entered by Manthey-Racing was only 0.814 seconds, and this after a race distance of 974.76 kilometres. Into third place followed Jörg Müller (Monaco), Augusto Farfus (Brazil and Pedro Lamy (Portugal) in a BMW M3 GT. With a victory at the opening round and third position at the last race, the BMW factory team thus finished all of the races in which they participated as preparation for the ADAC Zurich 24h Race on the podium. The grid in this race of the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring was more balanced than ever. Cars from six different classes were included in the top ten.
After the timed practice on Saturday morning, twelve of the 192 starters were classified within only ten seconds, in first place the team of Alexander Roloff (Berlin/ Germany), Thomas Jäger (Munich/ Germany) and Roland Rehfeld (Blankenfelde/ Germany) in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 entered by ROWE-Racing who scored a lap time of 8:14.961 minutes. In the early stage of the race, the leading group was then unvoluntarily turned upside down. The total of 20 cars were penalised by Race Control due to non-respect of flag signals, amongst them also the top ten overall. “We have taken these rigorous steps in order to make the infringements clear”, informed Clerk of the Course Peter Bröcher (Olpe/ Germany). BMW works driver Jörg Müller admits: “We do not at all want to put the marshals into any kind of danger. I was at the end of the top ten cars. We all have slowed down – but not enough. I am sorry for that, the penalty was ok.” In addition to the top cars, ten further cars from various classes were affected. This was definitely a preliminary decision regarding the fight about the day win. “We were not at all aware that we were about to win as not everything was running perfectly for our team”, said Seefried after the race. “We were lucky that we made it in the end – but luck is one of the elements you need in motor sport.” This was the first victory for Melo in his second race at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The race driver from Brazil was accordingly happy: “A perfect race – I wouldn’t dream of it.” Lieb who had brilliantly caught up was nevertheless happy: “I was able to move up to the Ferrari but did not manage to pass him. My team has done a good job. Even though not everything was running to our full satisfaction today, we are well prepared for the 24 Hour Race.” Lieb’s comment on the comparison which Manthey-Racing made concerning the participation of the RSR from the 2009 season instead of the traditional 911 GT3 R was as follows: “The GT3 race car is a little more powerful whereas the RSR has a better downforce.”
Due to the consistent application of penalties by Race Control, the later winners in the Porsche Cup class, Kai Riemer (Leipzig/ Germany) and Rodney Forbes (Australia), were able to race in the leading group. They could however no longer go the pace of the leaders during the last 90 minutes in the race. “The power steering failed”, said Riemer. “That was a really tough time at the end of the race. It was absolutely great when we were in the lead all of a sudden. No doubt, the competitors are very strong but – if everything is going all right – we are able to finish within reach of the podium.” The two SLS AMG GT3 of ROWE and Mamerow Racing finished behind the top three into places four and five. The Golf24 of Volkswagen Motorsport finished the race in sixth place ahead of the fastest BMW Z4 GT3 of the team Need for Speed Team Schubert, the Haribo-Porsche and the Lexus LF-A of Gazoo-Racing from Japan.
Championship standings remain provisional
The results of the 42nd Adenauer Rundstrecken-Trophy remain provisional due to the outstanding results of the technical checks carried out in class SP3T (VLN Specials up to 2000 cc cubic capacity with turbo) upon instruction of the VLN organisation and due to a protest against a car in the Renault Clio Cup class. Both classes are currently not considered in the standings. In the lead of the provisional championship classification are now the Black-Falcon drivers Carsten Knechtges (Mayen/ Germany), Manuel Metzger (Rickenbach-Hütten/ Germany) and Tim Scheerbarth (Dormagen/ Germany). They scored a third win with their BMW Z4 in the class of VLN standard production cars up to 3000 cc cylinder capacity.
The fourth round of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring is already scheduled in two weeks time. The 53rd ADAC ACAS H&R Cup race on 28th May will run over the usual distance of four hours.
