At the last race of the VLN endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring, Kissling Motorsport was able to pursue their brilliant performance throughout the year. The two SP3T Astra of the team both finished again on the podium in their class and, on top of that, completed the success with places 1 and 2 in the SP3T championship classification.
The regular teams made up of Hannu Luostarinen, Julius Nieminen and Volker Strycek in the yellow Opel Astra OPC and the drivers of the orange coloured sister car, Heinz-Otto and Jürgen Fritzsche as well as Nicole Müllenmeister were neck and neck almost throughout the complete 36th DMB Münsterlandpokal race. The race was running without any problems and the two 350 HP strong race cars completed their laps so closely that the lead between them was almost indeterminable. After 26 race laps on the about 25 kilometres long combination of the Grand Prix Circuit and the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the two cars were separated by only 2.4 seconds.
The Fritzsche brothers and Nicole Müllenmeister were finally ahead by this small margin. The driver trio is furthermore the best driver team in the SP3T championship classification and the three Kissling drivers finished into sixth position in the overall championship classification. The main reason for the success is the high reliability, in all of the ten championship races the Astra made it to the finish. Hans Ottersbach, Anssi Okkonen and Johan Dahlbaca lost many places due to an accident in fourth lap which was not their fault. After a repair time of one hour, they rejoined the race but without any chances for a good position in class VT2.
Kissling Motorsport can nevertheless take a very positive summary of the season. All of the drivers have scheduled to join the Kissling team again in the next VLN season. The most faithful members of the team are the Fritzsche brothers, who have been part of the team since more than 20 years, and Hannu Luostarinen, who will complete his 10th season with Kissling in 2012. Continuity is one of the main factors for the success of the Kissling team.
After the annual ceremony to conclude the season, the team which is based at Bad Münstereifel will concentrate on their race cars. The cars have completed many race kilometres and will hence be carefully checked and further developed in accordance with the SP3T Regulations. Further successful races shall follow next year. Stefan Kissling: “We are very happy with the season 201 and wish to thank everyone involved for their commitment and support.”
