Quite often, victory and defeat in motorsport lie very close together. In his still young motor sport career, Liam Talbot from Australia had to suffer his first setback at the six round of the VLN endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring. Together with Egon Allgäuer (Austria) and Wolfgang Schuhbauer (Brilon/ Germany), Director of the Aston Martin Test Centres at the Nürburgring, Talbot drove a Vantage V12 in the class of VLN Special up to 6,200 cc cylinder capacity at the race over a four hours duration. After a strong performance at the beginning of the race, he lost control of the British super sports car and crashed into the track barriers – an early out for the driver trio.
„When I wanted to lap another car at the big jump near Pflanzgarten, I touched the inside curbs and lost control over the car“, admitted a disappointed Talbot. Despite the incident, mentor Schuhbauer found some positive words: „Up to this moment, Liam had a very good stint in these difficult conditions, he had moved up from tenth position in the class up into second place. It is of course a pity that we could not finish with this result but this is part of motor sports. Liam must now consider this matter finished and look ahead.”
Allgäuer, too, did not blame his team mate at all. “If you always drive at your limits, you may cross it at a certain point”, he said. Allgäuer looks back onto a lot of experience in motor sports. One of the biggest successes of the brand ambassador of the Swiss tobacco manufacturer Villiger is the title in the Truck Racing European Championship 2002. “Whether in a race kart, in a sports car or in the racing truck – I always try to make the best of my job and to show maximum performance at all times”, says the Austrian race drivers. “With its high-capacity V12 engine, the Aston Martin is a fantastic race car and has an excellent performance at all speeds. Furthermore, the British traditional make is something unique. An Aston Martin is always something special.”
In addition to the spearhead of the Aston Martin Test Centre, there had been a number of customer cars at the start of the 36th RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen in the class of GT4 vehicles. In the so-called typical weather in the Eifel with permanently changing conditions, the team of Mathol Racing e.V. showed the best performance. Wolfgang Weber (Vilshofen/ Germany), Norbert Bermes (Krefeld/ Germany) and Rickard Nilsson (Balduinstein/ Germany) finally finished in second place and in a good 21st overall position. Following a courageous strategy and an early change to rain tyres in the final part of the race, a class win would have been within reasonable reach. Due to torrential rain falls and for safety reasons, Race Control however decided to stop the race with the red flag a few minutes before the scheduled race distance had elapsed. “A pity for the Mathol team”, said Schuhbauer. “But the stopping was fully justified. Safety of the participants shall always take priority.”
The top five behind the second-placed team were completed by three other Vintage. Kim Hauschild (Horneburg/ Germany), Michael Pflüger (Switzerland) and Ralf Oeverhaus (Osnabrück/ Germany) of the Team HRT-Performance took the chequered flag ahead of Oliver Louisoder (Trier/ Trier), Mario Hirsch (Arnstorf/ Germany), Norbert Bermes (Krefeld/ Germany) and Hendrik Still (Niederzissen/ Germany), entered by Hemopharm racing Team Bratke. In fifth place finally finished Dmitriy Lukovnikov (Russia), Matthew Di Leo (Canada) and Hans Robert Holzer (Koblenz/ Germany).
A 30 minutes summary of the race will be broadcasted in channel Sport 1 on 25 September at 22:00hrs. The seventh round of the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring will take place in two weeks time. The 45th ADAC Barbarossapreis on 28 September will run of the usual distance of four hours.
