Even though Weiland-Racing did not take the chequered flag at the 6h Race, the racing team demonstrated that to achieve a win in the Cup class, they have to be beaten first. In the unsettled weather prevailing during the race, the two Porsche 997 GT3 Cup almost simultaneously became victims of the weather conditions. The spirit in the team was nevertheless not at all only negative, in particular as team manager Matthias Weiland was able to follow the race at the circuit after a longer stay in hospital.
An outstanding performance showed in particular the Flying Horse MPD Porsche driven by Rodney Forbes and Kai Riemer who dominated their rivals in the rain. With a time of 9:12.497, the driver duo gained first grid position in their class and sixth place overall. Despite a wet practice and very slippery track conditions, the team had a clear and almost perfect fast lap and joined the much more powerful group of GT3 race cars from class SP9. With place fifteen, Alexander Gayday, Aleksey Basov and Andrij Kruglyk also achieved a very good start position in their Stealcraft-Porsche.
Kai Riemer was nominated to take the start in the fastest of the Cup Porsche with start number 100. It was not at all an easy job for him who started on rain tyres to stand up to the very strong GT3 armada. Riemer nevertheless succeeded in competing along with the top cars at the Grand Prix Circuit until he spun just before the access to the Nordschleife. “I had to let a few competitors pass before I was able to turn the car into the right direction and rejoin the race.” It was still in his first lap that the team then changed their strategy. Riemer came to the pits right after his first lap to change to slick tyres. “It was clear for me that the track would be dry quite quickly. Hence I thought the earlier we change to slicks, the better.” No sooner said than done. Riemer quickly moved up to the team mate and completed some laps together with their second car.
In his fourth lap, he then went off due to aquaplaning. “I have tried just everything to keep control over the car, but it was too late.” He crashed into the guardrails and had to stop the race.
For the Stealcraft Porsche, the race was also over after four laps. The second car entered by Weiland-Racing made it only a few kilometres further than the team of Riemer and Forbes before they had to stop the race which was scheduled to run over the distance of 6 hours after an accident. “We were a bit unlucky today, for sure, but we have again been able to demonstrate that the fastest Cup-Porsche race cars are the ones of our team,” said Matthias Weiland. The team manager is not yet completely fit again but he absolutely wanted to follow the 6 Hour Race on-site. His duties will probably be limited to the ones as team manager until the end of the season but next year he will definitely rejoin the races as driver. For the next round to take place on 24th September, his drivers will again do their best to finish the VLN race successfully.
