Pole position and victory – Mario Merten (Nürburg/ Germany) was simply not to beat at the sixth round of the Opel Astra OPC Cup during the VLN endurance racing championship. After the race duration of 3:36:50.229 hours, he took the chequered flag in his Cup-Astra with start number 350 into a superior first place. For him and his team Bonk Motorsport, this marks the second win in the highly competitive Opel make cup. Andreas Greineder (Fürstenzell/ Germany), Marc Legel (Runkel/ Germany) and Jürgen Nett (Mayen/ Germany) were able to enjoy second place at the Nürburgring which marked their best result in the current season. The top three were completed by Jannik Olivo (Berlin/ Germany), Elmar Jurek (Berlin/ Germany) and Alexander Schula (Hattersheim/ Germany) who thus further increased their lead in the Cup classification. After six of nine races, the two race drivers from Berlin are leading the Cup classification with 121 points. After his victory, Merten now scores 94 points in the championship standing and moved up into second position. For safety reasons, the race was stopped due to heavy rain all around the Nürburgring a few minutes before the scheduled race distance of 4 hours had elapsed.
“I am particularly delighted about this win”, said a tremendously happy Mario Merten at the prizegiving ceremony. “The weather was playing into my cards and the Hankook tyres were simply fantastic.” After the start of the race, the later winner had to defend his position in particular against the Astra of Olivo, Jurek and Schula. After a spin in the section Kallenhard, Merten even lost his lead meantime but did then a brilliant job under the permanently changing weather conditions. He went back into the lead after a perfect pit stop strategy and defended this position up to the finish.
After the Cup-Astra with start number 363 entered by the Team Mathol Racing e.V. did not make it to the finish at the last round, their joy about the second place was accordingly high. Even though the driver trio would have liked to really fight about the victory, Marc Legel, also on behalf of his tem mates, said „if anyone has deserved this success, it is Mario”. Legel and Greineder are currently shown in tenth overall championship position. “The score is always settled at the end”, Legel says in looking ahead. “We hope to gain some more points until the final – and then, we’ll see where we are.”
There was an exciting battle going on after the race start between Merten and Jannik Olivo, Elmar Jurek and Alexander Schula. “Under these circumstances, the third place is a superb result”, is the summary of Olivo. “The fight with Mario was fantastic. Our target in these changing and difficult weather conditions was to bring the Astra safely to the finish and to score maximum points with a view to the championship. We succeeded in doing so and we are thus very happy.”
The capricious weather in the Eifel region resulted in some delays on race day and additional excitement. In the morning already, the timed practice had to be postponed due to heavy fog. After one hour race time, it then started to rain so heavily that the whole field was considerably mixed up. In this period, the fastest Opel Astra OPC were meanwhile shown in the top 20 which normally include only high-capacity race cars. The stronger cars then came back due to their power when the track became more and more dry. Amongst the 18 starters in the Opel Astra OPC Cup, 16 cars were classified.
Theme party in the Opel-Cup meeting point was a great success
On Friday evening, the Opel Cup meeting point in the paddocks was converted into an alp lodge. Upon the initiative of Cup starter Daniela Schmid, the Opel family celebrated, together with the sponsor and partner of the Austrian race driver, the Pfitztal Tourist Board, a theme party under the motto “Welcome in the Pitztal”. Intensive motor sport discussions were accompanied by rustic musical entertainment and a buffet with Tyrolean delicacies. “A great idea. We could become used to such events”, said Opel Motorsport Director Jörg Schrott with a smile. “Drivers, team members and Cup organisation, we all greatly enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere during this really fantastic evening. A great thank you again to Daniela and the Pitztal Tourist Board.”
