Aston Martin does not stopping celebrating. The race cars of the British sports car manufacturer dominate in class SP10 like no other make. The seventh round of the VLN endurance racing championship, the Opel 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal race however, was something special in many regards. On the one hand, the Aston Martin Vantage V8 GT4 had to demonstrate their performance over the 6 hour distance, on the other hand the target was to score the 50th class win for the manufacturer. Just after 6 p.m., it actually happened. With the support of Domenico Solombrino, Wolfgang Weber, Norbert Bermes and Hendrik Still repeated their victory of the sixth VLN race and provided a historical success after 6:08.20 hours racing time. Once again and for the fourth time in the current season, the crew of the customer team Mathol Racing jubilated on top of the winners‘ podium.
„50 class wins – what an impressive figure“, said a happy Wolfgang Schuhbauer, Director of the Aston Martin Test Centre Nürburgring. „I have greatest respect for the work that the teams and the drivers are performing race by race. An incredible achievement which deserves high appreciation. My warmest congratulations.“
The quartet of the Mathol team carries on with the series of success since the start of the 2015 VLN 2015 in a superior manner. They had formed up to demonstrate that even over the longer distance a victory in class SP10 can only be done if first of all an Aston Martin Vantage V8 is beaten. And their starting position to achieve this was perfect as, due to their timed practice results, right two of the British super sports cars were in the first row of the grid. Dmitriy Lukovnikov, Marcel Belka and Stefan Müller (MSC Adenau) set the fastest time at the Eifel circuit and left Weber, Bermes, Still and Solombrino in second grid position in their class. In the race, however, the Aston Martin Vantage V8 GT4 of Mathol Racing was dominating. Whilst Lukovnikov, Belka and Müller lost some ground, the car with start number 188 had a close duel with the Porsche Cayman of Arno Klasen, Thomas Koll, Peter Terting and Nico Verdonck. The challengers anyhow succeeded only once and for a short time to go into the lead before the Aston Martin started to push harder and won the race with an advance of 36 seconds. The superiority of the winners is also reflected in the lep times. The Aston Martin Vantage V8 GT4 thus set the fastest lap time in the 35th out of 38 race laps, using 8:54.450 minutes for the 24.358 kilometres long track, almost four seconds faster than the Porsche. In celebrating their class win, Weber, Bermes, Still and Solombrino were joined by their make colleagues Lukovnikov, Belka and Müller who finally finished third and thus confirmed the impressive predominance of Aston Martin in class SP10.
On 3rd October and after six victories in six classified races, the British manufacturer intends to score the seventh success in the ‚Green Hell‘ at the eighth VLN race. Schuhbauer: „I am very confident that we will be on top of the winners‘ podium again next time.“
