Everything will start afresh in the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring after the winter break. The new season will bring along an exciting grid with a number of fantastic race cars which will provide a superb championship. The most popular club sport racing series in Europe promises brilliant motor sport at the most demanding race track of the world, the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and this now already for the 36th successive year –always starting on a Saturday. In 2012 again, the ‘Green Hell’ will attract drivers from all over the world to take part in the ten race events and the spectacular race cars which the VLN teams have thoroughly prepared throughout the winter will this year again contribute to the perfect motor sport experience for all ages.
After the VLN test and set-up session at which a great number of drivers and cars traditionally complete their first kilometres under conditions which almost similar to the races at the Nordschleife to gain experience, the kick-off for the season will take place on 31st March. Ford GT3, McLaren MP4-12C GT3 and Ferrari F430 Challenge are just some of the illustrious makes of the spectacular new cars which will this year join the endurance racing championship. The list of drivers, too, will include some exciting names such as Altfrid Heger, Norbert Siedler and Patrick Huisman who will regularly be at the start of the races. Entrance all around the Nordschleife is free. Tickets giving access to the paddocks, the pit lane and the starting grid will in 2012 be available at a price of 15 euro per person. “It was not an easy decision for us to increase the ticket fees by three euro compared to last year”, says Dietmar Busch, VLN Operative Manager. “This step has nevertheless become necessary and to compensate the price increase, we have decided to add a copy of the ‘VLN Racing News’, the informative VLN Programme amounting to two euro, to each ticket. The feedback by the fans was generally positive. Motor sport from close by is now as before available in the VLN endurance racing championship at family friendly prices – only the drivers themselves can get closer.”
The races in the 2012 season will nine times cover the distance of four hours with the ADAC 6h Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen representing the season highlight on 4th of August. “Upon request of many of our participants and to reduce the running costs for the teams, we have this year abstained from organising a second 6 hour race”, says Busch. To nevertheless offer an additional highlight for the fans, the Formula Renault will again join the championship as support race. Furthermore, the Touring Car Revival will return to the Nürburgring during the 54th ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup to present the spectators on 27th and 28th April a number of spectacular race cars from the ‘old’ DTM times until 1996.
New entry fee configuration and higher prize money support the club sport racing character
After three years without increase in the entry fees, the association organising the endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring could not refrain from adjusting the entry fees for the participants under consideration of the clearly increased costs for the organisation of this unique race series at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. “The most important point in discussing the new configuration of the entry fees was to prevent an increase of the fees for the teams in the smaller classes as they constitute the character of the endurance racing championship with their incredible engagement,” says Busch. “For this reason, we have started to increase the fees from the average classes and created a new configuration for the top teams. Many of them make available considerable budgets for their race participations to provide spectacular sport action for the fans around the Nordschleife. So the percentage here is the lowest.” The lowest amount of the entry fees becomes due for the classes of the VLN series production cars V1 to V4, the VLN Specials SP1 and class H1 – the entry fees here have not been changed and will be at the amount of 650 euro per race. The fees for the second category (V5 and V6, VT1 to VT3, VD, SP2 to SP4, Cup 3 as well as H2) were increased to 1,000 euro and for the third category (SP5, SP6 and SP8, SP10, D1T to D4T, Cup 2, H3 and H4 as well as AT) to 1,200 euro. The top cars in classes SP7, SP9 and E1-XP will pay 1,500 euro in 2012. Along with the new configuration of the entry fees, the prize money for teams registered in the endurance racing championship was increased by almost 25 percent onto 45,000 euro.
The VLN actively supports increased safety at the Nordschleife
Upon invitation of the DSK (Deutscher Sportfahrer Kreis e.V.), the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring joined a round table in February to discuss possibilities to increase safety during the race events at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. No sooner said than done! The VLN took action even before the start of the season. From the first round 2012, three instead of the traditional two intervention cars will be used on the more than 20 kilometres long Nordschleife. “We will thus reduce the time for the fast intervention vehicles to arrive at a site of accident by 40 percent”, explains Hans-Jürgen Hilgeland, speaker of the VLN stakeholders and Head of Sports. The VLN experts have analysed the accidents which happened during the past years in detail and ascertained different key aspects in the accidents with and without involvement of external parties. “The most important point, however, is that the number of accidents has gone down in the past years”, says Hilgeland. “Our main focus will be placed on the reduction of the speed of the cars when they pass an accident site. The quick arrival and action of the intervention cars is very important to achieve this. Furthermore, any infringements will this year result in much heavier penalties inflicted by Race Control in cooperation with the Stewards onto the drivers ignoring the rules and thus creating a safety risk.”
