The pit lane was cheered when Patrick Pilet (France) crossed the finish line in the Frikadelli Racing Team's Porsche 911 GT3 R. Together with Klaus Abbelen, Sabine Schmitz (both Barweiler) and Patrick Huismann (Netherlands), the quartet won the first Porsche of the year at the 39th DMV 4-hour race. It was the second triumph in team history for the local heroes. Marcel Fässler (Switzerland) and Markus Winkelhock (Berglen-Steinach) were ranked second in the Audi R8 LMS ultra. Third place went to Martin Ragginger (Austria) and Alexandre Imperatori (Hong Kong) with another Porsche 911 GT3 R, used by the Falken Motorsports team. A 30-minute summary will be shown on Sport1 on April 19 at 16:30 p.m. Afterwards, repetitions of the report will be broadcast on the Pay TV channel Sport1 +.
The second run of the year had to be stopped after 51 minutes after an accident with the red flag. "There was a collision between the Porsche with the start number 101 and the Volkswagen Scoricco with the 505 in the planting section," said race director Bernd Burkhard (Jülich). “Steve Jahns (Luxembourg) and Constantin Kletzer (Austria) were not injured in the incident; medical follow-up examinations yielded no results. ”Since the crash barriers were badly damaged in the accident, a break in repair was necessary in order to repair the route boundary. The restart took place at 16:15 p.m. over a distance of two hours. Both races were scored individually, the addition resulted in the final result in the decision for the day's victory. Since a total of 2: 42: 06.345 hours were covered, the 39th DMV 4-hour race is counted with full points in the classification of the endurance championship.
Started from fifth position, start driver Huisman took the lead in the first lap and extended it to more than 20 seconds until the crash. In the second race section of the Frikadelli Porsche crossed the finish line just seconds behind the later runner-up. "We took advantage of our opportunities and deservedly won as a team," said Abbelen. "All our drivers drove full speed and we did not call them back. Politics is a foreign word for me in motorsport. We compete to win. "The Phoenix duo were especially pleased with the performance in the second race section. "In qualifying and races, we were not in the lead," said Fässler. "In the second section, we benefited most of all from the good strategy of the Phoenix troupe."
Behind the top trio Georg Weiss (Monschau), Oliver Kainz (Kottenheim), Michael Jacobs (Roetgen-Rott) and Jochen Krumbach (Eschweiler) in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of the Wochenspiegel Team Manthey took fourth place. The fastest BMW Z4 GT3 was driven by Jörg Müller (Switzerland) and Maxime Martin (Belgium) in fifth place.
The group victory in group H went to the experienced Opel Manta team Olaf Beckmann (Oststeinbeck), Peter Hass (Lorsbach / Hofheim) and Volker Stryczek (Dehrn). The day before, a tree on the Nürburgring was dedicated to the trio, a favorite of the fans, a good omen for race two. "It's a great honor for me to have a tree here at the Nürburgring," said Stryczek, who is in good company with Beckmann and Hass. The trees of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Formula 1 World Champion Mika Häkkinen are in the immediate vicinity of their rock birch.
Victory in the Opel Astra OPC Cup went to Heinz-Otto and Jürgen Fritzsche (both Hückeswagen) and Thorsten Wolter (Berlin). In addition of the two runs, the trio 3,093 had a second advantage over the second-placed Mario Merten (Kelberg) and Jürgen Nett (Mayen). The Porsche Carrera Cup class was won by Dominik Baumann (Dortmund), Felipe Laser (Hamburg) and Stefan Landmann (Austria). The reigning champions, Dirk and Tim Groneck (Melle), confidently won the Renault Clio Cup class. The victory in the TMG GT86 Cup went to Dörr Motorsport with the driver trio Maciej Dreszer (Poland), Arne Hoffmeister (Lutter) and Fabian Wrabetz (Bad Soden). The first victory of the day in the BMW M235i Racing Cup went to Daniel Zils (Bendorf), Norbert Fischer (Cologne) and Uwe Ebertz (Sinn Fleisbach). The trio of Adrenalin Motorsport prevailed with a lead of 9,531 seconds against Max Partl (Pyrbaum) and Jörg Weidinger (Happurg) in the new 'Eifelblitz' of Team Scheid-Partl Motorsport. The winners of the VLN opening race, Guido Wirtz (Cologne), Christopher Rink (Frankfurt) and Oleg Kvitka (Russia) - also in the colors of Adrenalin Motorsport - completed the podium as third.
The third round of the VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring will take place on April 26, 2014. The 56th ADAC ACAS H&R Cup leads over the usual distance of four hours.
All photos: VLN press
