Strange, thrilling and successful – this is the summary of Mathol Racing regarding the finale in the VLN endurance racing championship Nürburgring. Two first places, a new record with the Civic, all of the eight cars classified, the last round of the year could hardly have finished any better for the team. And a lot of fun was provided by the “Bentley-Boys” in the two Honda Civic.
Team manager Matthias Holle, however, was rather annoyed after the race due to a protest. The sporting success was nevertheless predominant for him and in this regard, he was able to see right two spectacular duels during the first laps of the race.
First of all in class V6 in which Ivan Jacoma and Claudius Karch finally were one step ahead. Over ten laps, not even a paper would have fit in between the Zimmermann-Cayman of Mathol and the Porsche 911 of aesthetic racing. Yannick Fübrich had a hard and close fight with Claudius Karch. One time the Zimmermann-Cayman arrived back from the Nordschleife in first place, another time it was his rival. “A big compliment to aesthetic racing for having put up a really good fight.” Unfortunately the race finished for the team before the chequered flag came out after they crashed into the guardrails. “We hope that Yannick did not suffer any injuries. It is a pity that the fight ended this way”, said Holle who is already looking forward to the season 2016 in class V6. The second Cayman of Mathol Racing was not able to go exactly the same pace but nevertheless finished in a good sixth position in their class.
Holle was also delighted when he looked into the action in class SP10. Wolfgang Weber, Hendrik Still and Norbert Bermes again won their class in the Aston Martin Vantage V8 GT4 in the livery of Avia. The GT4-BMW of Sorg Rennsport, however and as a little surprise, also showed an excellent performance. “It appears that the Sorg team has found something that was deeply hidden inside the BMW for many years.” But the Mathol trio was not really impressed and finally dominated their competitors with an advance of almost three minutes in the end. Into third position finished the second car entered by Mathol Racing, the Stadavita-Aston.
For the second time in a row, the „Bentley-Boys“ who competed in two Honda Civic of Mathol Racing in order to obtain their Nordschelife Permit A created a little sensation. With the support of Dominik Fugel, Maxime Soulet, Andy Soucek and Jules Szymkowiak were finally able to complete the necessary laps in order to get the permission to compete in a GT3 race car next year. The radio message of the day was received by Matthias Holle in the first third of the race: “I think I have a rear-bumper at my front-bumper“, was the statement sent into the headset of the team manager. In close duels, a rear skirt of a BMW got stuck at the rear towing eye of one of the two Civic. The Civic carried the skirt at the rear over three laps. At the following pit stop, Mannheller Racing then came to the team and thanked Mathol Racing for the quick, even though particular component delivery.
Matthias Holle was also happy with the performance in the BMW Cup class. The racenavigator-BMW with drivers Christian Volz, Andre Duve and Domenico Solombrino finished 13th in the highly competitive class. The Avia-BMW in contrast had to slow down in the last laps due to gearbox problems and thus finished only seventieth in the class classification.
Holle: “All in all, we had a really good season. We confirmed our predominance in class SP10 even though we do unfortunately not have enough starters in our class to also fight in the overall classification of the championship. I am very proud on the complete team and I am very much looking forward to the next season. All of our staff definitely deserve the winter break now whilst I will just take a short breath and then proceed to planning next year. We are looking forward to getting into contact with interested drivers and crews. No matter hereby whether these are potential class winners, gentleman drivers or newcomers.”
