New season, new car, new look and a new driver – the Wochenspiegel Team-Manthey will start the new season in the VLN endurance racing championship with a complete facelift. The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with start number 154 had last year competed in each of the ten races at the Nürburgring. It was setting the standard in class SPPRO and just barely missed the podium in the overall classification at the fourth and again at the ninth round. The private team from Meuspath is prepared to attack again at the Nordschleife in 2016 with the new Porsche 911 GT3 R and with driver Mike Stursberg who will support the team at least until the 24h Race (26 to 29 May).
In the last five years, Stursberg competed at the Nordschleife mainly for the Haribo-Team. First of all in a Porsche 997 GT3 R and in 2015 for the first time in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. The team composition in the Wochenspiegel Team-Manthey is mainly unmodified. His team mates Georg Weiss, Jochen Krumbach and Oliver Kainz are also very experienced in racing at the Nürburgring. “I know them since three years and I have previously already competed together with Oliver in a race. They all are very fast and really nice guys”, says Stursberg who can hardly wait to sit down in the cockpit of the new Porsche. “Porsche has always been a childhood dream and it is somehow the motorsport brand par excellence. And the new 911 GT 3 R looks fantastic.” Together with his new and well-known team mates, Stursberg will collect first practical experience during the tests to be conducted in Spain. “I am already very excited. The previous feedback from Daytona was really positive. No technical problems, so a promising first roll-out”, informs Stursberg.
The race driver from Wermelskirchen is happy about each season in which he has the possibility to compete in races at the Nordschleife: “This is simply a breathtaking circuit without any major modifications throughout the years. I really like racing at the Nordschleife very much. And this is finally still a grassroots racing series with a very familiar atmosphere even though it provides a lot of challenges for everybody involved.”
For the 45 years old Stursberg, who acquires the necessary fitness amongst others in regular sports holidays, the Nürburgring is the perfect contrast to everyday life. “I have a smile in my face as soon as I sit down in the cockpit and fasten the seat belts. Then, when I exit the pit lane and release the speed limiter, this is simply a perfect, amazing moment. Something absolutely special”, says Stursberg. This feeling of elation will come back again at the latest during the first VLN race on 2nd April when Stursberg will be at the start of the first VLN round in the new Wochenspiegel-Porsche together with Weiss, Krumbach and Kainz.
