The Porsche GT3 Cup of the team Radevormwalder race&event once again was running like a Swiss clockwork, which was certainly not only a result from Peter Sanv from Switzerland joining the drivers’ squad. Eckhard Geulen (Bonn/ Germany), Thomas Schmid (Willich/ Germany), Uwe Kolb (Bad Homburg/ Germany) and Peter Sany (Wollerau/ Switzerland) showed a perfect performance and took the chequered flag in seventh position out of the 17 teams which had taken the start in the strong and competitive class of VLN Specials up to 4000 cc (SP7).
“All of the four drivers have even improved their personal fastest lap times and brought our Porsche to the finish without any damage. What more could one ask?” said a happy team manager Martin Mohr. In the current championship classification, the race&event Porsche is in third place in class SP7 and Ecki Geulen is classified 57th in the field of more than 800 participants.
The third round of the VLN Langestreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring was running over the race distance of six hours instead of the usual four hours. Mohr: “A good preparation for the 24 Hour Race end of June. Each of our drivers was able to gain a lot of racing experience and our pit crew, too, had a little more work than usual and got some additional practice.” This was also a result of the rain showers in the second hour.
New rear axle balance resulted in fast lap times
Both in the race and in practice, Eckard Geulen clearly remained under the nine minute mark. “If the weather is fine and there are not too many yellow sectors on the track, permanent times below nine minutes are no longer a problem now”, said Bonner. “We had changed the set-up of the rear axle which had a very positive effect.” For Thomas Schmid, his first participation in a Porsche started with a bang in practice, the result monitors showed a time of 8:59.503 minutes in qualifying. “The car was running perfectly, I hope this will be the same in the race.” It was not, finally, as Schmid was affected by the aforesaid rain during his stint and he, too, changed to rain tyres for three race laps.
Uwe Kolb: The problems are finally sorted out
”Today, everything is running all right, or better, today everything was matching perfectly!” said Uwe Kolb happily after he had left the cockpit and changed the car to Peter Sanv for the last fourth of the race. “The tests of last week and the meanwhile perfect balance of the Porsche had been very effective. And we will still further improve!” The race driver who lives in Bad Homburg/ Germany improved his personal fastest lap time by more than 10 seconds into now 9:47.050 minutes and six of his lap times remained clearly below ten minutes. “I am very confident; the problems are finally sorted out! I am really looking forward to the next races!”
Peter Sanv from Switzerland competed in his first race ever right at the most challenging race track of the world. “I am quite familiar with the circuit due to several training courses but these busy moments in a proper race featuring more than 200 cars is of course something totally different.” With a time of 9:53.489 minutes, Sanv had a brilliant racing debut. “I am very happy with my result. A great thank you also to the team for the fantastic preparation of the Porsche and to my team mates for the superb welcome in the team. I will race again for race&rent in September.”
For the third time in the current season, the Porsche 911 GT3 entered by the Porsche Zentrum Hagan and also serviced by race&event finished in the top of class SP7 ten again. Wolfgang Kemper (Menden/ Germany), Elmar Grimm (Münster/ Germany), Lutz Krumnikel (Weinheim/ Germany) and Sebastian Kemper (Vienna/ Austria) finished ninth out of 17 starters. Due to non-adapted driving under yellow flags, one lap was cancelled for the team and they dropped back by one place as a consequence.
Martin Mohr nevertheless was full of praise: “As always, the car was once again perfectly prepared by the Porsche Zentrum Hagen. We just had to refuel and change the tyres. It was bad luck that one lap was cancelled but more than 20 teams were affected today, so this can happen.”
The next race of the endurance racing championship covering the usual four hours race distance will take place on 28th May.
