After an exciting and overwhelming season, the new champions in the Opel Astra OPC Cup are confirmed. With their second place at the finale of the season in the highly competitive Opel make cup, part of the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring, Heinz-Otto Fritzsche, Jürgen Fritzsche (both from Hückeswagen/ Germany) and Thorsten Wolter (Berlin) won the title. “That’s terrific”, said Jürgen Fritzsche after the finish. “Even though we had quite a comfortable lead before the last round, I have seen so many things and everything is possible in motorsport. All the more we are so happy to now finally celebrate the big winners’ party with our Team Lubner Motorsport.” The race winners of the tenth round of the Astra Cup were Mario Merten (Kelberg/ Germany) and Jürgen Nett (Mayen/ Germany). The driver dup won the finale which was shortened down to the race duration of 3:05 hours ahead of Tim Schrick (Munich) and Hannu Lupstarinen (Finland) in the Opel of the team Kissling Motorsport who are competing in the Cup without scoring points.
It was nevertheless not an easy ride for the new champions to gain the title; due to an accident, the driver trio did not score any points in the third round of the season and the team had chosen a wrong strategy in the fifth race when the car stopped after running out of fuel. These defeats are, however, to be seen alongside five race wins, three fastest practice laps and five fastest race laps. They have finally collected enough points to finish in a superior first place in the Opel Astra OPC Cup classification with 208 points. Behind the winners with start number 344, the team of PB Per4mance with Jari Nuoramo (Finland), Juha Hannonen (Finland) and Ralf-Peter Bonk (Senden/ Germany) became second in the Cup classification.
For the champion team Lubner Event & Motorsport from Georgenthal near Erfurt/ Germany, this title in the Opel Astra OPC Cup 2014 represents their biggest success at the Nürburgring. “We all were so nervous before the race”, admitted team manager Anja Lubner. “It is true that we have won some championships and cups before but this result is a very special achievement.” Not only for the team as, whilst the Fritzsche brothers have already celebrated quite a few championships in their long career such as their four times victories of the VLN series, this was the first time for Thorsten Wolter to celebrate such a success. “I will definitely remember this result for a long, long time”, he said at the prizegiving ceremony.
“Finally an end without a shock”, was the summary of Jürgen Nett regarding the finale. After a year with ups and downs, this long-awaited victory was balm for the soul of Nett. “We have shown again what we can achieve. Everything was running absolutely perfectly today, from the start till the finish.” Team mate Mario Merten, first champion in the Astra OPC Cup in 2013, praised the constant performance of his successors. “Jürgen, Otto and Thorsten were the ones who made the lowest number of mistakes and thus deserved to win the title. Congratulations to the Team Lubner.”
The last race of the season had also a good end for Daniela Schmid who lives in Munich. Together with Alexander Mies (Heiligenhaus/ Germany) and Sandro Marsani (Hattingen/ Germany) the Austrian lady driver with start number 351 finished on the podium at the final. “Before the season, I was strictly convinced that we would fight about the title this year but we suffered such a series of bad lack. When we had no problems, we showed that we were able to fight for the win. Today’s third place concludes a difficult season and puts me in a conciliatory mood.”
Big cheers in the team of Tim Schrick and Hannu Luostarinen. The Kissling duo finished as vice-champions in the VLN drivers’ championship. “With Hannu I’ve had a fantastic team mate”, said Schrick. “We complemented one other perfectly and got on really well with each other. We were able to motivate each other all the time. Our pace was always good and we have scored five class wins – the final result as vice-champions is fantastic even though we would of course have preferred first place. It is a fantastic success to finish in that position considering the strong competition within the championship and the whole team around Stefan Kissling has contributed to a really great extend. With the Cup Astra, Opel has developed a great car for racing at the Nordschleife and our task was to simply gain the laurels. It was, however, not as easy as it may look. The competition is extremely high and everything must run perfectly in the races. In our team, this was quite often the case.”
“There was a seamless transition from the successful season in which the Opel Astra OPC Cup was introduced. We have seen exciting motorsport and finally celebrated a worthy champion”, was the summary of Opel Motorsport Director Jörg Schrott regarding the second year of the popular Opel make cup. “In addition to all the racing action out on the track we have in particular seen a fair and respectful conduct of the participants – that underlines the grassroots character of the Cup. A big compliment also to Kissling Motorsport for their professional preparation and running of the Cup on-site and for their open-minded attitude towards all competitors. We are already looking forward to the Astra OPC Cup 2015.”
