The strong performance of ROWE RACING at the first VLN race in the 2014 season did finally not result in the appropriate success: A position on the podium in view, the SLS AMG GT3 driven by Michael Zehe (Flörsheim-Dalsheim/ Germany), Thomas Jäger (Munich) and Maro Engel (Monaco) suffered two tyre damages in a row. After the second unscheduled pit stop, team manager Hans-Peter Naundorf decided to stop the race on account of the hopeless gap.
For a long time, the VLN opening round had looked very promising for ROWE RACING. Amongst the 170 cars which had entered the event, Thomas Jäger achieved the seventh time in qualifying. Start driver Maro Engel was able to follow up this good start in the event. He established the gullwing race car in the leading group with constant fast lap times. Thomas Jäger took over the steering wheel in lap 13 and managed to move the ROWE SLS further up into third position.
In lap 17, the team was slowed down in their superior performance due to a damaged front right tyre. The former DTM driver was able to continue to the pits in the gullwing race car. He rejoined the race with quite a gap to the race leaders but his performance was stopped again after two more laps. Another tyre damage, again on the front right side, stopped them finally.
Team manager Hans-Peter Naundorf: „This is really a great pity, we had a very good race until the final third of the race and we already ‘smelled’ the podium a little. We will now have to look into the reasons for this double damage and then concentrate onto our next targets.”
