It is a phrase that is not infrequently used in the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring, but it is so often applicable: In the ninth round, the ROWE DMV 250-mile race of AC Monheim, everything with a good reputation is at the start. Around 190 vehicles will compete in the penultimate four-hour race of the 2014 season. The beefy GT3 racing car from the traditional Bentley company celebrates a world premiere and takes the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife under the wheels for the first time in racing. The British super sports car has the sonorous name Continental GT3 and is piloted by the three British works drivers Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Andy Meyrick. There are also a number of small anecdotes that will ensure that the race will make history in several ways. The endurance championship experience is free around the Nordschleife. For the open grandstands at the Grand Prix circuit and a visit to the paddock including the starting grid, family-friendly 15 euros must be paid per person. Adolescents under the age of 14 have free admission. Tickets are available at the box offices on site. All information about the most popular popular sports series in Europe is available on the Internet at www.vln.de.
The Bentley Continental GT3 comes up with numbers that make the hearts of all motorsport fans beat faster. A four-liter V8 engine ensures performance. Compared to the production model, which in the automotive premium league is more likely to be classified in the comfort segment, the British manufacturer prescribed the racing counterpart a radical slimming regimen that saves more than a ton of weight. The GT3 racing car was immediately successful in its debut season. In the European GT3 championship 'Blancpain Endurance Series' Bentley Motorsport was immediately second in the driver and team classification.
The competition will not make it easy for the newcomer to the 'Green Hell', however, and the protagonists are closed at the start of their laurels. The range of GT3 racers ranges from Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to Audi R8 LMS ultra, BMW Z4 GT3, Ford GT3, McLaren MP4 12C GT3, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 to the Porsche 911 GT3 R. The German sports car spearhead from Zuffenhausen still has a record to go, because the legendary 911 has won 199 victories in the history of the endurance championship.
Le Mans winner Marco Werner (Switzerland) is a little more modest. The long-time Audi works driver celebrates his 30th anniversary in motorsport at the ninth VLN race. Born in Dortmund, the roots lie in the most popular mass sport series in Europe and here he has found his preferred home again today. A small downer: Werner has never made it onto the podium in the VLN. As successful as his career was - in addition to three successes in Le Mans, he also registered in Daytona and Sebring in the lists of winners - it has not yet worked on the Nordschleife. The ROWE DMV 250-mile race is contested by Werner together with Christopher Haase (Kulmbach) and Markus Winkelhock (Berglen-Steinbach) in the Audi R8 LMS ultra of the Audi race experience. In this constellation, a podium is within reach and there will hardly be a VLN fan around the Nordschleife who would not allow him this success.
For VLN pilot Tim Scheerbarth (Dormagen), just looking at the list of participants is a sense of achievement. The VLN champion of 2011 has had a steep success curve in the endurance championship in the past seven years and is contesting a race in an overall viable vehicle for the first time in the ninth round. Scheerbarth shares the cockpit of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 with the Swede Andreas Simonsen, Hubert Haupt (Munich) and David Jahn (Speyer). Scheerbarth has already demonstrated that he is fast on the Nordschleife in high-performance vehicles in 2013 and 2014 with class victories in the Porsche in the VLN specials up to 4.000 cc. He is aiming for a top 5 result in the gullwing from Affalterbach.
Her racing debut in the 'Green Hell' celebrates at the 250-mile race Lena Strycek (Dehrn). The daughter of Volker Strycek (Dehrn), 1984 first DTM champion, long-time Opel sports director and regular VLN participant, is now venturing into the RCN performance test - a mixture of regularity rounds and sprint sections on the Nürburgring Nordschleife - after thorough training the next step in real racing. The 24-year-old shares the cockpit of an Opel Astra GTC / OPC with Uwe Stein (Meerbusch) and Peter Venn (Great Britain). Both Strycek children have now found their way into the endurance championship. Her brother Robin made his debut back in 2012 and gained his first experience with vehicles from Honda, BMW and finally Opel. Father Volker is of course also part of the event at AC Monheim. He contests the race on two vehicles: the iconic Opel Manta around Olaf Beckmann and in the Opel Astra OPC Cup together with Stefan Kissling (Bad Münstereifel).
The ROWE DMV 250 miles race leads the usual four-hour distance on the 24,358 kilometer-long combination of the Nürburgring sprint course and the Nordschleife. The starting signal is given punctually at 12 o'clock, beforehand the starting positions will be extended from 8: 30 to 10 o'clock