ROWE RACING finished its “home game” in the VLN endurance racing championship with a result on the podium again. The racing team which is based in Bubenheim/ Germany and which was for the first time title sponsor at this penultimate round of the 2012 VLN season scored third overall position.
The weekend had already started very promising for the team in the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. The gullwing race car with start number 6 and drivers Nico Bastian (Frankfurt/ Germany), Marko Hartung (Wallroda/ Germany) and Mark Bullitt (Miami/USA) started the race from pole position, its sister car with start number 7 driven by Roland Rehfeld (Blankenfelde/ Germany), Jan Seyffarth (Querfurt/ Germany) and Maro Engel (Monaco) took the start from third position on the grid.
Right after the green light, the start drivers Nico Bastian and Roland Rehfeld went into the race lead. After a little more than 90 minutes race time, however, the racing team from Bubenheim encountered back luck. First of all, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 with start number 6 and in second place had a technical failure but was able to rejoin the race after a pit stop. Little later then, Jan Seyffart who was in the lead at that time had to stop the race after an accident which was no fault of his own.
The driver trio of Bastian, Hartung and Bullitt then succeeded brilliantly in catching up until fourth position. After the competitor in third place then received a time penalty for an infringement under yellow flags, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 of the team ROWE RACING with the Dunlop tyres was finally classified in third position.
ROWE RACING team manager Hans-Peter Naundorf: “It is of course a pity that we had bad luck right twice in today’s race but our third place finally compensated this misfortune. Furthermore, Nico Bastian set the fastest race lap and we also gained pole position this weekend again.”
The results of ROWE RACING in the VLN 2012 so far: Two overall victories, four additional results on the podium and the total of eleven places in the top ten.
The final round of the 2012 VLN will take place on 27th October. All the highlights of today’s race will be broadcasted in channel SPORT1 on Wednesday, 3rd October 2012, at 13:30hrs.
