The Farnbacher team is always good for a surprise: five years after the team around team boss Horst Farnbacher clinched their first Ferrari victory in the VLN endurance championship Nürburgring, the team from Lichtenau provided the next premiere at the 9th round in 2016: Dominik and Mario Farnbacher won the first victory for an Asian automobile manufacturer in the Lexus RC-F GT prototype. After 28 laps, their lead over Alexander Sims and Stef Dusseldorp in the BMW M6 GT3 from ROWE-Racing was 33,551 seconds. Christopher Mies and Connor De Phillippi finished third in the Audi R8 LMS from Montaplast by Land-Motorsport; at the finish line, the duo, which had already won twice this year, was 41,947 seconds behind the leaders.
"This is a fantastic success, the reward for almost two years of hard work," said Horst Farnbacher after the race, knowing full well that his team had just achieved something great. The Nürburgring Nordschleife is not only considered the queen of all racetracks in Germany and Europe, drivers who are victorious in the “Green Hell” also enjoy a high reputation in the Middle Kingdom. Accordingly, the victory on the pit wall was celebrated frenetically by everyone involved. “I can hardly believe what we have achieved today,” admitted Mario Farnbacher. However, the success is not by chance. Since the 2015 season, Farnbacher-Racing has regularly competed in the endurance championship with the Lexus and has consistently advanced the development of the RC-F on the way to becoming a GT3 racing car. "The collaboration between Lexus in Japan, Toyota in Cologne and our team was perfect," explained Dominik Farnbacher. “Almost everything about the prototype used for the first time today is new, and it is much more comfortable to drive. With the predecessor, we always had to take a lot of risk in order to be fast. It's much more relaxed with the new model. ”The secret of the success was, on the one hand, the team's perfect tactics (switching from rain to dry tires was spot on in lap two.), And, on the other hand, the constant performance of the drivers who focused on the 4 hour races allowed no mistakes, while the competitors stumbled in difficult weather conditions.
The two-time season winners Mies and De Phillippi were favorites with minor problems. The US-American experienced a “big moment” in the start phase of the race when he brushed the line at the entrance to Brünnchen. “I like to drive when it rains,” explained De Philippi, “but these mixed conditions with half wet and half dry slopes were extremely difficult.” His team mate took the result calmly. "We can be satisfied with third place," said Mies. “We didn't start in the VLN in two races. The top group is so close together that we simply missed the eight hours of racing in the end. ”Sims and Dusseldorp were also satisfied with second place. "Especially in the final phase it got extremely exciting again when light rain set in again," confessed Dusseldorp. "You just have to be wide awake, after all, at this point we pushed hard to secure second place against the Land-Audi."
In qualifying, Norbert Siedler proved that he is a real rain specialist. In the Porsche 911 GT3 R, the Austrian took pole position for the Frikadelli Racing Team. In the race, he and Patrick Huisman finished seventh. In addition to Farnbacher, Land and Frikadelli, Uwe Alzen and Lance David Arnold in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 from Haribo-Racing as well as Jesse Krohn, Victor Bouveng and Christian Krognes in the BMW M6 GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport powered by Dunlop collected lead kilometers. While the race for the Haribo-AMG ended prematurely after a radiator damage as a result of a collision in the starting phase, the Walkenhorst-BMW finished fifth behind the Audi R8 LMS from Phoenix Racing.
There were even more successful premieres: Bruno Spengler and the KTM X-Bow GT4.
After his Nordschleife race premiere, DTM driver Bruno Spengler was overwhelmed; The BMW-powered Canadian rider completed twelve laps on the 235-kilometer Sprint and Nordschleife combined circuit in the BMW M24,358i Racing Cup vehicle. "A completely new experience," he concluded. "I have never looked in the rearview mirror as often as today. But the race went smoothly so I'm very happy. "
The first race kilometers in the "Green Hell" were also successful for the two KTM X-Bow GT4. For long stretches, Christopher Haase and Arne Hoffmeister fought directly with Ferdinand and Johannes Stuck. In the end, the positions 16 and 17 to book - the double victory in the GT4 class was mandatory.
After initial decisions in the VLN had already fallen on the eighth run, another championship was decided at the DMV 250 miles. David Griesner, Juha Hanonen and Roger Vögeli clinched the class win in the Opel Astra OPC Cup, thus securing the third title for Lubner-Motorsport. "A great race," said a delighted Griesner. "Now we can really relax and enjoy the last run in two weeks. The team and we riders have performed well throughout the year and can now celebrate their merits. "
The season finale of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring takes place on 22. October. The 41. DMV Münsterland Cup leads over the usual distance of four hours.