Furious finale: Land Motorsport celebrates third win of the season
The VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring says goodbye to the winter break at the end of its 40th season with a furious finale. The winners of the 41st DMV Münsterland Cup, Christopher Mies and Connor De Phillippi, who started in difficult weather conditions at the start, were greeted by a bright autumn sun at the finish: In the Audi R8 LMS from Land-Motorsport, they finished 4:06: 25,800 hours with a lead of 2: 44,418 minutes ahead of Jörg Müller and Nico Menzel in the BMW M6 GT3 of the BMW team RBM. Third place went to Christian Krognes, Victor Bouveng and Jesse Krohn in their BMW M6 GT3 from Walkenhorst Motorsport. Land-Motorsport is the most successful team of the season with three overall wins and the VLN Speed Trophy. The most successful drivers in 2016 are Alexander Mies and Michael Schrey from Bonk Motorsport: The new VLN champions rounded off their extraordinary performance with an eighth class win in the BMW M235i Racing Cup.
Three teams competed in the VLN finale for the overall victory: Land Motorsport, the second placed BMW team RBM and Haribo Racing with the drivers Uwe Alzen, Lance David Arnold and Renger van der Zande in the Mercedes-AMG GT3. Starting from pole position, Jörg Müller initially took the lead in the BMW M6 GT3, which in the third round took him off Lance David Arnold, but his team-mate Uwe Alzen had to drive the Haribo-Mercedes in the 18. Turn off the lap early after an accident.
"Apart from the fact that we were lying in the 6h race a few hundred meters from the finish with an empty tank, we 2016 actually had a good run," said Christopher Mies. "However, the conditions were a challenge today. After the first stop, we decided to stay on wet tires. This may have lost some ground, but it was the safest option. For this we were able to lay the last pit stop later so that we had no minimum service life. "
With Nico Menzel, son of Nordschleife expert Christian Menzel, one of the youngest drivers was on the VLN podium at the finale. The 18-year-old BMW Junior delivered a squeaky clean performance in his only second race in GT3 cars. "That's amazing. A big thank you to the people of BMW, who gave me this opportunity, "said Menzel. "And also to my team RBM, which was very well prepared. It's the first podium for me, hopefully one of many. "
Another good result was achieved by Walkenhorst Motorsport. The journey to the sixth overall podium finish of the season was anything but a walk for the team from Melle near Osnabrück. "The first stint was certainly the toughest I've ever ridden here," confessed Jesse Krohn. "It was extremely difficult to bring the tires up to temperature. That was the maximum that was possible today. Everything went well for us, we made the right decisions at the right time. "
Behind the top trio followed on the other positions a colorful mix of manufacturers: The Mercedes-AMG GT3 of HTP Motorsport finished in fourth place in front of the Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 by Zakspeed, sixth place went to the Porsche 911 GT3 R by Frikadelli Racing, the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus took seventh place with the SCG003C. Behind the Wochenspiegel Porsche and the second Walkenhorst M6, Tim Scheerbarth and Alexander Toril Boquoi piloted the fastest SP7 Porsche to tenth place.
Successful premiere Part 1: Nordschleife rookies from the DTM
The two DTM drivers Lucas Auer and Felix Rosenqvist pulled out of the affair at their premiere on the Nordschleife. In the TMG GT86, they drove together with their DTM colleague Daniel Jucadella, who competed in his second VLN race, to class victory in the Cup4 class. "That the guys are fast, was to be expected, but that they would be so fast in an unknown car right away, was great," praised Alexander Fielenbach from the deployment team Mathol-Racing.
Successful premiere part 2: the new TCR racing car Audi RS 3 LMS
The new Audi RS 3 LMS made a strong impression when it was first used in racing. In the final, Jordi Gené and Kelvin van der Linde and Rahel Frey and Christopher Haase took overall positions 140 and 17 out of 22 participants. “However, the result was irrelevant for this test session,” says Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. "It was much more important that both cars drove through without any technical problems and that our drivers felt comfortable in difficult conditions."
Further dates 2016: Annual Award and Essen Motor Show
The successful riders of the season 2016 in the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring will participate in the 19. November 2016 honored as part of the annual award ceremony at the Bitburger Event Center at the Nürburgring. From the 26. November until the 4. December 2016 presents the VLN at the Essen Motor Show in hall 6, booth 100.
Best of Gallery - Last Race 2016 - The Ham Race
All photos: SB-Medien, Stefan Baldauf, Guido ten Brink