“We cannot be fully satisfied with our result at this race”, said Michael Bonk regarding the performance of his racing team Bonk motorsport at the fifth round of the VLN endurance racing season at the Nürburgring. Within the BMW M235i Racing Cup, Ralf Schall and Mario Merten finished in second place and reinforced their good prospects in the battle for the title. Alexander Mies and Emin Akata who had to retire after a rear-end collision in lap 18 completed the day less successfully. In the Opel Astra OPC Cup, too, the two entered Bonk teams – the Westfalen-Opel had not taken the start for safety reasons after an accident in the previous race – missed the top positions and finished seventh and eighth respectively.
The race day had thereby started quite favourably. In the pleasant summer conditions at the Eifel track, the Bonk teams had achieved promising grid positions in the practice. Schall and Merten in the Hakro car finished fourth in the BMW Cup class, Mies and Akata became fifth. The two Opel scored fifth place with Jasmin Preisig and Marcel Senn and ninth position with Lena Strycek, Raphael Hundeborn and Roman Löhnert. The race then started according to schedule. The two BMW of Schall/Merten and Mies/Akata were in leading positions in their very competitive class. Bonk: “At the second pit stop of the Hakro-BMW we lost about 30 seconds as the fuel pump did not work properly. Not much later, Mies was then involved in an accident at the Flugplatz. Fortunately, Schall and Merten managed to move up again into second place.”
In the drivers’ classification, Schall and Merten are currently shown in second place with a score of 68 points whereas Bonk motorsport is leading the team classification with 80 points. The BMW M235i Racing driven by the experienced Michael Bonk, Jürgen Meyer and Volker Piepmeyer completed the race without any problems and finished 15th. Bonk: “We had a lot of fun and showed a constant performance. The result is no longer that important for us.”
In the Opel Cup, a few thing really went wrong. Both Bonk Astra ran out of fuel on the track and had to be recovered. Their loss of time was huge. Bonk did not have a clue: “We proceeded just as always. We refuelled as normal but still we ran out of fuel. It is a miracle for me. After these mishaps there was of course no more thought of achieving a good result.” So Preisig and Senn claimed only seventh place and Strycek, Hundeborn and Löhnert finished eighth.
