The HARIBO RACING TEAM had a very promising start into the endurance racing championship season at the Nürburgring. At the opening round of the VLN endurance racing championship, the 59th ADAC Westfalenfahrt, the crew with drivers ‚HGR’ (Leubsdorf/ Germany), Mike Stursberg (Wermelskirchen/ Germany) and Emmanuel Collard (France) took the chequered flag in their Porsche 911 GT3 R after having completed 16 laps on the 24.360 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short version and the Nordschleife into seventh place. After a little more than 160 minutes of the scheduled race distance had been completed, the race was stopped by Race Control with the red flag due to heavy fog.
“We take a positive summary after the first race with our own team”, says Stursberg. “We were able to set constant lap times. The racing tyres supplied by our partner Falken, too, worked perfectly under these mixed conditions at the Nürburgring.” The HARIBO RACING TEAM had taken the start from an excellent fifth position on the grid and was always found in the leading group. Whilst some of their competitors made some errors, the 911 in the gold bear design completed lap by lap brilliantly. “We had already completed our last pit stop when the race was stopped so that we could have continued until the finish without any further stop”, says Stursberg. “Some of our direct competitors still had to proceed to their final pit stop so that we could have achieved an even better place. But we do not wish to complain – the decision taken by Race Control was correct.”
After two years absence at the Nordschleife, professional race driver Collard now had a very good comeback. “Since 2010, I had not been at the start at the Nürburgring”, says the Frenchman. “With the HARIBO Porsche, I nevertheless found my rhythm on the track very quickly and felt very well.”
