Eight races, eleven results on the podium, including six victories – the track record of the team Peugeot RCZ Nokia can hardly be more impressive. At the eighth round of the VLN Nürburgring endurance racing championship, Michael Bohrer, Stéphane Caillet and Jürgen Nett again took the chequered flag in their Peugeot RCZ 2.0 HDi FAP with start number „545“ as winners in the category of Diesel cars. After four hours race time, the driver trio had gained an advance of two laps ahead of their team mates Cyrus Ayari, Olivier Perez and Timo Frings. This was the fourth one-two-win of the season in class “D1T” for the Team Peugeot RCZ Nokia. After eight of ten championship races, the winning team is now into sixth place in the overall classification.
After the race start, Michael Bohrer in the white RCZ went right into the lead. Oliver Perez, for the first time start driver at a race around the Nordschleife, followed in the black sister car. Both cars were slowed down a little in the third part of the race due to smaller problems. Bohrer, Caillet and Nett had a loss of water as the radiator in their car was damaged through a stone. “We refilled some water and continued”, said Nett. Their team mates Ayari, Perez and Frings had a tyre damage.
Clearly fastest practice time
In the qualifying session already, the Peugeot drivers set the pace in the category of Diesel vehicles. The first driver in the white RCZ was Caillet, followed by Nett. Before Bohrer took over the steering wheel, the team fitted new tyres. With a lap time of 9:45.732 minutes, he gained pole position with a clear advance amongst the Diesel engine vehicles. “Unfortunately, I had to shift down during an overtaking manoeuvre at the section Bergwerk”, said Bohrer. “I lost a lot of speed and a few seconds. Otherwise, the time would have been even better.“ Into second place followed Ayari, Perez and Frings Perez set a new personal fastest time with 10:02.686 minutes.
207 RC „VLN“: Class win for ARED Motorsport
Ronny Tobler, Jürg Tobler and Ralf Bettendorf were celebrating their win in class “SP2T” (Specials up to 1600cc with turbo) with the ARED Motorsport-Peugeot 207 RC. “We are more than happy but honest enough to also mention that we benefited from the retirement of the long-time leader”, said Ronny Tobler. “We would not have been able to dominate the high-performance Mini Cooper from our own resources. But to win, you also need to take the chequered flag, and we managed that. Apart from a slight collision with a guardrail, we had no problems at all.”
