The qualifying session in the morning started in the rain. Norbert Kraft was the first driver in the team to start the wet session in the VW Corrado, which was fitted with intermediates, at temperatures of around 12 degrees. The track was getting dry when Jürgen Freiburg took over the steering wheel. He brought the car into fourth grid position in the class up to two litres cubic capacity and into 168th overall position in the field of 194 starters in total.
The tyre choice at the start of the race was like tea-leave reading. Should you try to follow the strategy of the top teams or should you better follow your own instinct and experience? The decision was taken in favour of fitting intermediates. Unexpectedly, the track got dry in third race lap already and many teams changed to slick tyres. Team manager Claus Trant, too, signalled his driver Freiburg to come to the pits but then decided to change his mind in fourth lap which turned out to be the right decision. It started to rain again heavily and they saved one tyre change. From this moment, the team’s main concern was to apply their strategy effectively. The meanwhile torrential rainfalls did certainly not make this task very easy but all the more challenging.
After three hours racing time, Freiburg had already moved up into 67th overall place and second position in their class. The driver’s change to Norbert Kraft took place at the pit stop of the Corrado. Throughout the team’s history, this was the best racing position ever and the bar was thus set very high for Kraft. The expectations set in the latter were however by far exceeded. In the fifth lap, he set the fastest time of the team and finished the race safely in the Corrado which was meanwhile fitted with slick tyres despite the torrential rain which had come back. This performance was not only highly appreciated within the team but also by all the fans around the track.
All the guests of the main sponsor attending the event, the team members and the crew finally celebrated a 91st overall position and second place in their class. Last but not least, the Corrado managed to finish the small marathon race without any damage or technical problems. The many weeks of preparation were thus rewarded and the team can now look forward to the four hour race on 24th of September.
