The seventh VLN round of the 2011 season once again demonstrated that ROWE RACING has become firmly established amongst the top teams in this most popular club racing series in Europe. After their victory in the last VLN race, the team which is based in Bubenheim again finished in a top position today at the 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen. The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 driven by Michael Zehe (Flörsheim-Dalsheim/ Germany), Hubert Haupt (Munich), Klaus Rader (Munich) and Marco Schelp (Berlin) finished fourth overall and third in class SP9 which figured 17 cars in total.
The sister car with the driver trio made up of Roland Rehfeld (Blankenfelde/ Germany), Alexander Roloff (Berlin) and Thomas Jäger (Munich) showed an excellent performance during the first part of the race. The SLS AMG GT3 with start number 13 had started the race from fourth grid position and was one of the fastest race cars in the field of 199 starters after the start. The car which was still running on slick tyres unfortunately had to retire after almost one hour race time at the section Hatzenbach due to aquaplaning and was not able to rejoin the race.
In the very unsettled weather at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the race was very turbulent right from the start with many changes in the lead. The tyre strategy in particular turned out to be of vital importance. Michael Zehe’s comment: „We were playing a little at the beginning of the race and it paid off. Whilst the other competitors came to the pits to change to slick tyres, we were staying out on the track. We were able to do so as the Dunlop tyres have an excellent performance even when the track gets dry which it did. Hubert thus had the chance to complete his first stint without a pit stop and we could gain a comfortable advantage. Thereafter, he completed a second fantastic stint which was the basis for our success.”
Start driver Hubert Haupt confirms: „I had a good start. I started the race into fifth place behind Thomas and completed the first laps behind him. The first cars came to the pits to change tyres shortly thereafter. We discussed on the radio if we should as well proceed to a tyre change but then decided to stay out on the track. It then started to rain and the other cars had no grip on their slick tyres. I could thus go into the lead and changed the leading position with the Manthey Porsche many times for several laps. That was really great fun!”
Team manager Hans-Peter Naundorf, too, thinks that the tyre strategy had been decisive and he thinks it started in the qualifying already. “Even though the SLS AMG GT3 with start number 13 had been involved in a collision, the qualifying with final positions four and five were nevertheless successful for us. Under these difficult conditions, we had several options due to the Dunlop tyres. Hubert Haupt has finally done a great job and finished into fifth grid position. Thomas Jäger even finished fourth in qualifying with a totally different tyre strategy. All in all, a good starting position for the race.”
The two ROWE RACING cars then again had different strategies regarding the Dunlop tyres at the start of the race. Hans-Peter Naundorf explains: „This was in particular of benefit for our car number 15 which was temporarily leading with an advance of 2-3 minutes. Our strategy did however not work for our sister car and we unfortunately went off the track. Even though the car was not that badly damaged, we decided to stop the race as a top position was out of reach.”
Hans-Peter Naundorf finally: „Under these difficult conditions, the fourth overall position confirms our victory in the last race. The team has once again done a fantastic job, including the drivers. Again we had no technical problems, everything just as we expected our performance to be towards the end of the season.”
