The fight about the race win of the second round in the Opel Astra OPC Cup at the Nürburgring went right down to the wire a few minutes before the race end. Two of the principle competitors had to bring their 300 Hp strong Cup racer to the finish keeping the foot light on the accelerator so that they did not stop due to lack of fuel on the 24.358 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short version and the Nordschleife. The third in this group in contrast was able to go flat out until the finish. Heinz-Otto Fritzsche, Jürgen Fritzsche (both from Hückeswagen/ Germany) and Thorsten Wolter (Berlin) finally were able to celebrate their first victory of the season in the highly competitive Opel make cup organised within the framework of the VLN endurance racing championship. The race which was scheduled to run over four hours had to be stopped with the red flag after an accident in which an about 80 metres long section of the Armco barriers were damaged. The restart was given at 16:15hrs with a remaining duration of 2 hours. Both parts of the race were added to establish the final race results.
\”That was an eventful race on a high level and we absolutely deserved that first position\”, said Wolter, the winner full of self-confidence. \”We had gained an advantage of more than four seconds in the first part of the race. That was the basis for our success of today. We lost a little bit of time at our last pit stop because we took a little more fuel than our competitors\”, explained Wolter. \”This strategy paid out fully out on the track because we did not have to take care of our fuel consumption in the final part of the race.\”
Things were different for the second placed team: In the second part of the race, final driver Merten in the Opel Astra OPC with start number 350 was in the lead but he could not go flat out in the final lap. \”We have made a mistake regarding the fuel amount, that will be very narrow\”, said Nett who followed the final part from the pit lane and crossed his fingers for his team mate – always carefully watching the monitors showing the GPS positions of the cars carefully. \”We have taken a decision against another refuel stop – win or loose. Mario will now have to drive in the eco-mode.\” This is exactly what the triple VLN champion did and he was finally rewarded with the victory.
Position three on this exciting race day was won by the winners of the opening round two weeks ago, Jari Nuoramo (Finland), Juha Hannonen (Finland) and Peter Bonk (Senden/ Germany) in the Cup-Astra with start number 347. they, too, had made is mistake in the fuel calculations and had to slow down in the final lap. \”That was really very close\”, was the summary of Hannonen from Finland.
Just like at the opening round, the Cup Astra teams were fighting very closely about seconds – the winning Astra and the second placed car were separated by only 3.093 seconds. Start driver Nett and Jürgen Fritzsche unanimously found words of praise for their competitors: \”We had very fair battles all the time and each of us left enough space to the other respectively. We had several changes in the lead and were able to pull away from the rest of the field. When two \”old hand\” are fighting against each other, it is always great fun.\”
Another victory was gained by Opel in group H. Olaf Beckmann (Oststeinbeck/ Germany), Peter Hass (Lorsbach/Hofheim/ Germany) and Volker Strycek (Dehrn) took victory in their group in the popular cool Opel Manta. On Friday, a tree at the Nürburgring had been dedicated to the driver trio which is so popular with the fans – a good omen apparently.
The two weeks rhythm in the Opel Astra OPC Cup will continue. The third round, the 56th ADAC ACAS H&R Cup will take place on 26th April 2014. The race will run over four hours again.
