The team ‚FH Köln Motorsport powered by Ford’ again finished first in class SP4T and 34thoverall at the sixth VLN round. The drivers Anja Wassertheurer, Daniela Schmid and Benjamin Koske thus gained important championship points and further extended their lead in the class. The race had to be stopped twice due to heavy accidents.
As it is frequently the case in the Eifel region, the weather was quite unsettled that weekend so that the timed practice session was held under gentle rainfall and the track was wet at the beginning and still humid at the end. As always, these conditions were however favourable for the Ford Focus RS which was confirmed by a good 23rd position overall. Benjamin Schaefer, Head of the Performance team: “The good result is also due to the Dunlop rain tyre which keeps its performance for long when the track starts getting dry.”
The start of the race nevertheless was not that perfect for the FH team. After a spin in the first corner, Daniele Schmid lost a few places. “Apparently, a competitor missed his braking point and crashed into the rear of my car. A second later, several cars ahead of me spun and I was trying to avoid a collision. So I couldn’t avoid spinning”, informed the lady driver from Austria after her stint.
Anja Wassertheurer then took over the steering wheel but had to come to the pits after only one lap as the race was stopped after 90 minutes race time due to a heavy accident.
Three cars were involved in a collision in the high-speed section Tiergarten. Wassertheurer: “I passed the site of the accident after the crash. There was a lot of debris on and beside the track.”
Fortunately, only two drivers suffered slight injuries. The race was resumed after more than one hour of recovery work. Benjamin Koske was the driver at the restart and moved back up into 34th position with fast lap times. With 9:14.340 minutes, he missed the current fastest race lap of the Focus by a few tenths of second only. As the race was finally stopped after an accident in which six cars were involved, Anja Wassertheurer could not proceed to her final turn: “That’s a pity, the red flag came out just when I wanted to start my stint. But it is much more important that the drivers did not suffer any injuries.”
As the minimum driving time of 160 minutes was just completed, full championship points will be awarded for this sixth VLN round and the students were very happy with their good result. Their next participation will follow on 27th August 2011 at the 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen.
