With a race distance of 50 percent more than the average, the “Opel 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen“ belongs to the highlights in the calendar of the Astra OPC Cup organised during the VLN endurance racing championship series. At the seventh round of this Opel make cup in the current season the famous weather prevailing in the Eifel region marked the fight about the top positons. The extremely difficult and changing conditions with heavy rain falls required full concentration not only by the Cup drivers: The pit crews also had to react onto the permanently changing weather throughout the event and adjust their strategies. The team which did their job best in this relation was once again Lubner Event & Motorsport. With their victory, Thorsten Wolter (Berlin) as well as the brothers Jürgen and Heinz-Otto Fritzsche (both from Hückeswagen/ Germany) further extended their lead in the championship. “It will be very tough to remove us from this top position”, was the message of Heinz-Otto Fritzsche to their competitors.
The seventh race was however not at all just an easy promenade for the Lubner Astra with start number 344. “It was quite a tough race for us old guys”, said Jürgen Fritzsche at the prizegiving ceremony. “You are always taking some risks under these conditions. Smaller offs which made your heart beat heavily fortunately did not have any serious consequences. Only once have we made a wrong tyre choice, apart from that it was a fantastic race for us.” With 152 points, Fritzsche, Fritzsche and Wolter are in the lead of the Cup classification now three races before the end of the season. Their advance ahead of the second placed Astra with start number 357 of the team Düchting Motorsport is 20 points. “Now, our only target is to win the series”, said Thorsten Wolter regarding the remaining races.
An enthusiastic atmosphere was not only prevailing in the team of the championship leaders; after the end of a hard time, Maximilian Hackländer (Rüthen/ Germany), Christian Gebhardt (Stuttgart/ Germany) and Daniel Bohr (Luxembourg) climbed up on the second stage of the podium and were really happy. “It was a challenging race from the first till the last lap”, was the analysis of Hackländer and he was full of praise for his race car. “These were the right conditions to take advantage of the Cup Astra’s potential – the brilliant traction and the fantastic handling. In one stint, I was only passed by GT3 race cars and this demonstrates our competitive and good pace in these weather conditions. I wouldn’t mind if the conditions were similar to today in every race.”
More than happy with their result were also Willy Hüppi (Switzerland) and Alexander Schula (Hattersheim/ Germany). The unequal driver duo, Schula the experienced expert at the Nordschleife and Hüppi the ambitious private driver, completed the podium. “I felt this was the worst race I have ever done. It was a really big relief when I took the chequered flag in my Astra”, said the race driver from Switzerland. “I was just completing the laps without looking at our position. The race was partly just like riding on the edge of a razor blade and the risk to have an accident was very very high. Even though I was driving with utmost care, I spun in the very last lap, fortunately without any consequences.”
Bad luck suffered the fastest in practice, Mario Merten (Kelberg/ Germany) and Jürgen Nett (Mayen/ Germany). The Cup Astra entered by Bonk Motorsport was in the lead when it had to stop almost 15 minutes before the race end due to an electronic failure. Last year’s champion Merten and his team mate Nett now have 96 points and lost contact to the championship leaders. Merten and Nett in fourth position are now leading a chasing group of four vehicles that are separated by only 14 points after seven races.
Another class win was scored again by Tim Schrick (Munich) and Hannu Luostarinen (Adenau/ Germany) who were this time supported by Volker Strycek. After six hours race time, the Opel Astra OPC Cup took the chequered flag in 17th overall positon. Their gap behind the race winners was only three laps in the end.
The cool Opel Manta celebrated a fantastic jubilee: The team around Olaf Beckmann (Oststeinbeck/ Germany) scored a class win at their 100th race participation. “The potential of this car is absolutely unbelievable”, said Beckmann who was full of emotions. “The Opel Manta t the Nordschleife – this is a really great love.” Beckmann, together with his long year’s team mates Peter Hass (Lorsbach/ Germany) and Volker Strycek (Dehrn/ Germany) scored his 39th class victory. “The Manta has covered more than 70,000 kilometres in racing at the demanding Nordschleife”, said Strycek. “This is a fantastic performance. The team around Olaf has deserved a big compliment and acknowledgement.”
The next round of the Opel Astra OPC Cup will take place in three weeks’ time. The 46th ADAC Barbarossapreis to take place on 13th September 2014 will cover the traditional distance of four hours again.
