It is difficult to believe, the highlight of the VLN endurance racing championship, the 6 Hour Race ADAC Ruhrpokal Rennen, again ended prematurely for Pinta Racing even though everything was running perfectly for the racing team from Unterföhring/ Germany until the early accident in the fifth lap. The crew had done all things right in the weather chaos in the Eifel region but a rain shower spoiled all the team’s hopes.
During the qualifying, Pinta Racing had shown a top performance again in setting third lap time. Since the fastest practice time was set by a car of class SP4T which took the start from the second starting group, Pinta Racing could even start the race from second grid position. So only Sabine Schmitz in the Frikadelli-Porsche started ahead of Lauck.
On a partially wet and dry surface at the Nordschleife Lauck then started the race without pushing too hard and saw one or another competitor moving ahead. “This is a very long race and we wanted to make sure to finish without damages or accidents,” said Illbruck, explaining the team’s tactics for start driver Lauck. After a couple of laps the Pinta-Porsche then returned to the pits to change to slick tyres, but only one lap later Lauck informed from the section Döttinger Höhe that it started to rain again. “I decided to nevertheless continue the race.” Little later, this turned out to be the wrong decision.
Two corners after the exit to the Nordschleife it was clear that a change to rain tyres would have been the better decision. The Porsche 997 GT3 R went off the track at the section Hatzenbach and crashed into the guardrails. Even though Lauck was still able to return to the pits, the damage was too bad to rejoin the race.
After analyzing the outcome of the race, Pinta Racing decided to relieve Manuel Lauck from his duties as race driver. Michael Illbruck explained: “After the series of bad success we’ve had this season in the endurance racing championship, we need a change in the team. We want to have a fresh start for Pinta Racing with a new driver.” For the next two races Marco Seefried will be the second driver alongside Michael Illbruck in the Pinta-Porsche. Negotiations within the next few weeks will clarify the further plans in the team.
