The series of bad luck had almost finished for the Porsche Kremer Racing Team from Cologne at the 37th RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen, the sixth round of the VLN endurance racing championship at the Nürburgring. Two tyre damages finally most probably spoiled their class win in class SP7 of VLN Specials for 3,500 to 4,000 cc cylinder capacity race cars.
The experienced crew of the traditional racing team from Cologne was completely focussed on the classification in class SP7 when they started the practice of the 6th VLN race. With 15 teams, the number of competitors in this class was very high again. Regular driver Wolfgang Kaufmann set a lap time of 8:29,060 minutes in his Porsche 911 GT3 and finished in 19th position overall as well as fastest in his class.
In the early stage of the race, the team around the Kremer team owner Eberhard A. Baunach and their main sponsor billiger.de enjoyed the pace of top driver Wolfgang Kaufmann. „Our competitors use to ask who is going to be the start driver in your team. When I reply: Wolfgang, they are a little bit shocked as they are aware that it will be difficult to fight against our car at the beginning”, says the team owner.
All of a sudden, the bad luck of the season then came back: A tyre damage slowed down the car and compelled the team to come to an unscheduled pit stop. Kaufmann, a very ambitious driver, however remained seated inside and proceeded to a double stint. He managed to move back into the top positions in class SP7 before he suffered another tyre damage towards the end of this turn. This time the change of the tyres was combined with a change of drivers and David Schiwietz took over the cockpit of the GT3 KR. His stint was running absolutely perfectly, he was constantly setting fast lap times until the final change of drivers.
Kremer team owner Eberhard A. Baunach took over the Kremer-Porsche with the expectation to finally possibly finish in 5th or 6th place. He was however able to keep third position in their class due to constant and quick times and they finished into a very good 19th overall place.
„This third place feels like a class win“, said Baunach at the finish. “There were a lot of damaged tyres today but due to the increase in carbon parts, there are more and more sharp objects out on the track. Our front splitter, too, was damaged shortly after the start already and such debris very often is the problem.”
The gap to the winners in class SP7 was only a little less than eight minutes in the end and Kaufmann also completed the fastest race lap in his class with the Kremer-Porsche 911 GT3 KR in setting a time of 8:30,507 minutes. Many perfectly satisfied guests followed the running of the race in the Kremer lounge and, just as the team, they are very confident for the remaining races in the 2014 season.
Next weekend Kremer Racing will again compete at the Nürburgring in the AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix and the fans should already now note Saturday the 20th September in their calendars when the traditional racing team will invite to an open day at their premises in Cologne Ossendorf.
