Markus Schmickler, Guido Strohe and Lars Heisel succeeded in scoring their sixth consecutive win in class V4 at the 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen which was marked by extremely unsettled weather. Markus and Lars are still in the lead of the VLN championship classification for series production cars. It remains to be seen if they will be able to defend their small advance in the championship table during the remaining three VLN rounds. The team had to experience how thin the line between victory and defeat may be when they went off the track in the last lap and were close to being out.
The unsettled weather in the qualifying session already moved the starting grid upside down. This concerned also the top car of Schmickler Performance which this time had to take the start from an unusual position seven in their class. Wet track at the start changing to dry conditions, rain coming back again, each lap was different. Several tyre changes became necessary in order to adapt the car to the track conditions.
Towards the end of the race, the car was leading with an advance of five minutes, a clear demonstration of the excellent competitive and strategic performance of the team. A crash in the very last lap at the Aremberg corner after the car had come onto aquaplaning gave the whole team a real scare. Fortunately, Lars Heisel managed to get the car out of the gravel and finished the race.
The second BMW 325i driven by Klaus Landgraf, Yannick Fübrich and Sven Glatzel had gained pole position in their class but made it into third lap only in the race. The car was stopped at the section Hatzenbach due to a sudden rain shower. The BMW Z4 M-Coupé entered by the z-racing-team, too, was not very successful this time. After a courageous start with slicks on the wet track, Dieter Weidenbrück quickly moved up into the class lead. The second driver in the team, Rolf Buchstaller, defended their lead and after five hours race time the car was leading the class with an advance of almost three minutes and was shown into 29th overall position when the team was stopped due to a small problem with the fuel supply.
All in all, a race with mixed results but in the focus for the team of Schmickler Performance is of course another class win and the championship lead.
