Actually, everything was already clear before the race: “We can only beat ourselves”, said Alexander Mies before the last round of the VLN endurance racing championship. The BMW 320 si, which is driven by Mies together with Axel Burghardt and Jens Moetefindt again finished on pole position in class V3 after the practice session. The trophy for the class win in the last race of the year was this time however won by another team.
The reason was the third race lap. Start driver Burghardt started an overtaking manoeuvre just before the corner “Mutkurve” and moved ahead of a competitor who, on his part, seemed to be so surprised by this action that he crashed heavily into the rear of the BMW. The team mate of Mies however managed to get the car back under control and to drive back to the pits. The rear tie rod which was badly damaged had to be changed. “We lost one lap as a consequence”, said Mies who was a little angry but did not really blame the competitor. “Maybe it was too risky to overtake exactly at that place”, said Burghardt later self-critically, “on the other hand, there was enough room.”
The driver trio did nevertheless not give up and tried to close the gap again. “This was finally not possible but it is anyhow not a reason to slow down”, said Mies. Even though he was aware that more than a third place was not possible, the race driver from Heiligenhausen/ Germany was pushing hard again. With a time of 10:07,230 minutes, he did not only set the fastest time within their class but also improved his own lap record which he had achieved at the eighth championship round. In class V3, he is now the only driver who has beaten the 10:10 minutes mark, and this not only once meanwhile.
“Altogether I am happy with my first complete season in the VLN endurance racing championship”, said Alexander Mies later. With eight fastest times in practice, five class wins and three lap records, the season was indeed running almost perfectly. “I would have liked to finish first in the last race, too, but you also need a little bit of luck in a long-distance race.” And this is exactly what the team did not have this time.
Mies cannot give any information yet on his season 2012 at this point. His team manager Michael Bonk has already signalled that he would like to continue the co-operation with Alexander Mies in the next season. “I think, we will discuss all the details during the next weeks.”
