Already early on Saturday morning the weather was really “typical of the Eifel”. Fog caused the training to be postponed. When the fog cleared and the VLN racers were able to go on their training laps, it was the BMW Z4 GT3 (# 2) with Uwe Alzen at the wheel who set the fastest time.
A 9: 32,913 ensured pole position for the duo Philipp Wlazik and Uwe Alzen. The successful ROWE team with the Mercedes SLS competed as usual with starting numbers # 6 and # 7. The usual stronger driver duo on the SLS with the number # 7 put the SLS in second place with a 9: 39,811. The top 2 were completed by the “racing meatball” (# 3) at the wheel of Klaus Abbelen, Sabine Schmitz and Patrick Huismann were reported. Her training time was a 30: 9.
The start to the 36. RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen was a poker session for many teams, should you start with intermediates, rain tires or even slicks? The weather was typically Eifel-typical and in some parts of the Nordschleife, even though the training was mainly in humid conditions, there were already dry spots.
“The fat guy” had gambled too high in training and was - he actually only wanted to go on his last lap shortly before the end of training - too late at the start / finish. The Manthey-Porsche with Krumbach, Bergmeister and Luhr therefore started the race with a 10: 08,204 only from 20th place on the grid. However, the team had to change Nordschleife legend Manthey opted for “slick tires”.
That you can also win from 20th place on the grid is a peculiarity of the Nordschleife. The team around Olaf Manthey and the “fat one” made it. Rain tire poker, weather on the Nordschleife, experienced drivers and a team boss washed down with rain - in the end, the 500th victory for a Porsche in the endurance championship was certain. Second place was also achieved by Manthey - at the wheel of the Cup Porsche with starting number # 2, Christian Menzel and Wolfgang Kohler did their laps through the capricious weather conditions of the Eifel.
And place 3 went to a Porsche, the Cup Porsche of GetSpeed Performance with the starting number 112 secured the last place on the podium.
The two ROWE-Mercedes were abandoned by racing luck. After Nico Bastian triumphed with outstanding lap times in the first laps after the start, the racing driver's luck left him at 13:33 and he hit Heck ahead in the Breidscheid section. And only twenty minutes later the race for the ROWE SLS with starting number 6 was over: an accident in the Kesselchen area.
The biggest surprise on Rennsamday in the Eifel was the returned one Master Team of LMS Engineering. The use of an AUDI TTRS2.0, initiated by team boss Andreas Lautner, impressed in practice with a 10: 07,547 and the clear best time in the SP3T class. The Raeder-Motorsport squad that had been leading in the championship until this race only managed a 10: 23,697 in practice and started the race from 28th place. The new LMS AUDI TTRS2.0 with starting number 1 was 10 places ahead of the training result. With the new LMS AUDI TTRS2.0, the almost identical success of the Raeder troop should have stopped for now.
If it had been wet longer on the Nordschleife, the team around team principal Andreas Lautner would have provided a tangible surprise. During the phases in which the ring provided continuous entertainment due to changeable to extremely wet conditions, the SP3T Audi TT of the LMS men was among the fastest on the track. At times the Audi with starting number 1 led the entire field. Of course, they benefited from the failure of the ROWE men, the failure of the Pole-Setter GT3 BMW from H&R Motorsport and the rather thin top field in the seventh VLN race of the season - but the LMS-AUDI TTRS2.0 has set a clear fragrance brand.
With the overall rank 6, the first outing of the new AUDI was crowned with a real success. If you compare the “fastest race laps”, the development by Lautner Engineering was 3 seconds faster than the SP3T factory Audi.
The Raeder team with the #331 and the drivers Elmar Deegener, Jürgen Wolfarth and Christoph Breuer arrived at 14 and had to hand over the championship lead to the Groneck brothers in the CUP3 Renault Clio with the #655.
Even if the Eifel had already ushered in the fall on Saturday, the hot season of the VLN season has just begun !!
TV Note:
An 30 minute summary shows the transmitter Sport 1 on 25. September 2013 at 22 pm.