At the third round of the BLN endurance racing season, the MOTEC Wheels Team once again finished on the podium in class V5 of standard production cars. After their victory in the last race, the team now finished into second place and furthermore fulfilled the very special heart’s desire of a blind motor sport fan with a taxi ride.
The 54th ADAC ACAS H&R Cup offered everything which makes a motor sport day perfect for the about 25,000 spectators around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Summerlike temperatures, a list of entries with more than 200 cars and great racing action provided a fantastic atmosphere at the traditional circuit in the Eifel region. For the teams, this weekend was at the same time the last test before the big highlight of the season, the international ADAC Zurich 24h Race. The MOTEC Wheels Team, too, wanted to take this opportunity to proceed to final adjustments in the two BMW Z4 Coupés and the BMW E36 M3 GT. And these modifications turned out to be successful right away. Daniel Zils (Bendorf/ Germany), Matthias Unger (Heusenstamm/ Germany) and Norbert Fischer (Cologne) gained their second pole position in the current season with a lap time of 9:40,005 minutes which was some remarkable 18 seconds faster than the next competitor in their class.
Despite this brilliant performance in the qualifying, the driver trio in the BMW Z4 Coupé with start number 444 missed the last bit of luck in order to finish first again. Daniel Zils had a good start of the race and was able to defend his class lead throughout his stint, even though he experienced some smaller technical problems with the BMW Z4 Coupé in this phase already. These problems then required an additional, unscheduled pit stop around mid-race and the MOTEC Wheels Team dropped back into second place. The crew did nevertheless not give in and was determined to go back into the lead. All their hopes were spoiled a little later when they received a Stop-and-go-penalty from Race Control for exceeding the maximum permitted speed in the pit lane. A very good second position in class V5 for standard touring cars was nonetheless a good result for Matthias Unger, Norbert Fischer and Daniel Zils.
“We would have been able to score another class win without the penalty and without the additional pit stop. It’s a pity but we are also quite happy with our second place. Now, as we have finished all of the three VLN races this year on the podium in our class, we are very optimistic for the 24h Race and are looking forward to the event”, explained the three drivers shortly after the race.
Lucas Ordonez (Spain) and Carsten Ohlinger (Ludwigsburg/ Germany) who shared the steering wheel in the second BMW Z4 Coupé with start number 445 had rather a normal race. The driver duo however convinced with constant and fast lap times and did a perfect job throughout the whole weekend. Their efforts were rewarded with a sixth place in the very competitive class V5. Their team mates Joe Kramer (Hamburg/ Germany) and Christian Büllesbach (Königswinter/ Germany) in contrast had bad luck this time. After a strong performance at the beginning, the throttle linkage in their BMW E36 M3 GT broke towards the end of the race. As the race was stopped with the red flag just after their damage, they were still classified in ninth position.
Apart from the actual racing action, the MOTEC Wheels Team had however another important item on their schedule. Together with Adrenalin-Renntaxi, they fulfilled the heart’s desire of a person blind from birth during the VLN free practice session and took him in a taxi ride in the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup through the Green Hell. In addition to the impressions about centrifugal forces and speed which the now 50 years old man was able to experience, Daniel Zils gave live-commentaries during the ride. All in all, an unforgettable and fantastic adventure!
The fourth round of the VLN endurance racing championship, the 43rd Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy will only take place on 23rd June 2012. In between, the MOTEC Wheels Teams will however take part with four cars in the international ADAC Zurich 24h Race to take place from 17th to 20th May 2012.
