At the seventh round of the VLN endurance racing championship, Uwe Kleen and Jean-Jacques Meyer withstood the extremely difficult weather conditions with their Renaul Clio entered by Ring Racing and dominated the almost 30 cars in the Renault Sport Speed Trophy. The teams of TKS-Motorsport and ATM-Motorsport, too, had good reason to be pleased as they also finished on the podium.
Meyer and Kleen laid the foundation for their success already right after the start. “Whilst many competitors had meanwhile changed to slick tyres, we continued on our rain tyres. Later on, this turned out to be the right decision“, said a happy Uwe Kleen. When the race was then stopped due to heavy rain seven minutes before the scheduled end, the triumph for Ring Racing was perfect. Kleen who celebrated his first victory in class Cup3 could not hide his relief: “That was a hard race. We are totally happy with such a super result.” Furthermore, Ring Racing achieved a brilliant position in the overall classification and finished into 32nd place in the field comprising about 190 cars.
Thorsten Wolter and Michael Brüggenkamp finished the 6h Race into second position. In the last third of the race, Brüggenkamp had a fantastic fight with Uwe Kleen. “It was really great fun and Uwe is a fair sportsman, Place two is super and the best result so far in my VLN career”, informed Brüggenkamp. The fact that the Renault Clio does by far not need to hide in the ‘Green Hell’ was also confirmed by the team of TKS-Motorsport which finished into a fantastic 33rd overall position behind Ring Racing.
Jana Meiswinkel, Ernst Berg and Ferdinand Baratella provided quite a surprise. No one could stop the joy in the driver trio of ATM-Motorsport about their third place. “I have never experienced such a chaotic race. Decisive for our success was the tyre choice at the beginning which really helped us in our performance”, said Ernst Berg. In the last hours of the race, Baratella finally succeeded in pursuing the brilliant performances of his team mates. “I took over the steering wheel into tenth position and took the chequered flag in third place. I have tried my very best today and I am more than happy with this fantastic result”, said Bartella with happiness written all over his face.
Peter Utsch and Frank-Dieter Lohman finished into a superb sixth place. Under the difficult meteorological conditions, the duo which is managed by Schlaug Motorsport also seized the favourable opportunity and also had the perfect tyre strategy. Less lucky in contrast was the sister car of Schlaug Motorsport. Karl Raab, Sebastian Lhomer and Werner Frei hatten had chosen the wrong tyres and dropped back into place eleven. “That was typical weather again for the Eifel region. I am happy that we managed to finish this difficult race and the sixth place is quite a good result”, was the summary of team manager Manfred Schlaug.
Axel Linther and Dirk Riebensahm in the Wochenspiegel-Clio were not lucky at all. „I had a crash at the section Hatzenbach in the first part of the race”, explained Linther. The series of bad luck, however, continued for the team. After a little more than four hours race time, Dirk Riebensahm was pushed off into the guardrails when he was lapped by a stronger car. “That was not our fault and hence very annoying”, added Linther.
The fight about the lead in the championship gets more and more exciting now. Into first place are still Jannik Olivo and Elmar Jurek with 144 points, who had however to score an unlucky retirement this time after a disastrous day. Sesterheim is following in the classification with a razor-thin gap and 143 points. Kleen and Meyer have now moved into third position with 112 points.
„A great weekend! The total of 30 Renault race cars had been at the start. This is a fantastic result and a great reward for our work. I’d be happy to continue in the same manner”, said Renault project manager Tobias Hütter who is happily looking forward to the continuation of the series at the Nürburgring. The next VLN round of the season, the 43rd ADAC Barbarossapreis, will take place on 24th September 2011.
