At the rehearsal for the 24h Race, the Nürburgring featured a grid with more than 200 cars last weekend and a surprising change in the lead of the VLN overall classification, long-distance motor sport at its best.
At spring temperatures in the Eifel region, more than 18 Renault Clio had taken the start in the third starting group of the grid which was made up of 212 cars in total at the 54th ADAC ACAS H&R Cup. Whilst the weather conditions had partly dominated the action at the first two races of the season, the weather this weekend attracted a great number of spectators to come to the Nordschleife.
At the end of the qualifying, the Cup 3 winners of the second race, Jannik Olivo and Elmar Jurek in the TKS-Clio, had to be satisfied with second place behind the crew of Goedicke and Schläppi entered by Schläppi Race-Tec. The top three on the stating grid were completed by Karl Brinker of the team Vulkan-Racing Mintgen Motorsport. After the first hour of the 4 Hour Race, the later winners in the Cup 3 classification, Olivo and Jurek, had however already moved into the lead. Whilst Karl Brinker was keeping second place at mid-race followed by the Clio of the team Schläppi Race-Tec, he was finally found into 15th position of the Cup3 class at the end of the race. Behind Goedicke and Schläppi who finally finished second, Knut Wolf and Michele DuMartino finished the race in place three. After an accident in the section Tiergarten, the race was stopped with the red flag three minutes before the scheduled race distance had elapsed.
Tim and Dirk Groneck from Melle/ Germany finished into fourth place in the Cup3 class and first in the special classification of the Clio Cup Speed Trophy where prize money is allocated to the winners. Following this result, the drivers from the Lowe Saxony in North Germany are now in second place of the Speed Trophy classification which sees Frei and Raab of the team RL-Racing, second in this VLN race, in the lead. Into third and fourth positions follow two Clio of the Roadrunner Racing team from Cologne ahead of the driver duo Muster and Lüscher from Switzerland.
