After most of the Nordschleifen running had been interrupted at least in parts by rain so far this season, the fourth VLN-round took place on a beautiful summer day with temperatures well up in the 30°C range. The weekend got off to a very confusing start, with Rowe-Racing announcing the withdrawal of their two Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3s for the race due to unhappiness about their current Balance of Performance. This took out one of the pre-race favourites in Jan Seyffarth and Nico Bastian.
In Qualifying, UweAlzen put the hammer down, when he burned a time of 8:02.418 minutes into the tarmac of the Nürburgring-Nordschleife and short loop of the GP-Track – the fastest-ever qualifying lap on this track configuration. “It was just a perfect lap and we got all out of our Dunlop tires,” a smiling UweAlzen said after he climbed from his BMW Z4 GT3. Setting the second-fastest time was Frank Stippler aboard the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra, ahead of Robert Renauer in the Pinta Team Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R. The places also went to Porsche 911, with the Falken Motorsport car fourth and the Frikadelli-Racing Porsche in fifth. At Frikadelli Racing, Patrick Pilet was a late call up, with Sabine Schmitz being sidelined due to a knee injury.
Right from the get go, UweAlzen unpacked the hammer again and separated himself from the pack in the opening laps. For Ferdinand Stuck the start of the race didn’t go as planned, with the younger of the two brothers spinning at the Warsteiner curve and having to let the whole first group slip past before continuing with the race. Being buried somewhere in the 50s after his first lap, Ferdinand set out to make up as much ground as possible. With the sole Audi R8 in the field temporarily out of contention it was a train of Porsche 911 GT3 Rs following the BMW Z4 GT3 of Alzen, albeit with a considerable gap.
Showing good form during the opening laps was the Ford GT of Jürgen Alzen Motorsport – ArturDeutgen behind the wheel – which was fighting with Henri Moser for fifth place, but soon he had to surrender this spot to Moser, who was driving the CarCollection Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. Deutgen’s day went from bad to worse, when an hour into the race he touched with the Schubert BMW Z4 GT3 at the Karussell. The Ford GT collected a slower BMW E36 and went into the Armco with considerable force, retiring the fan favourite. The Schubert Z4 was able to keep on going.
Alzen was the first to dive to the pitlane for his first scheduled stop, visiting his team after seven laps. This, paired with the fact that Patrick Pilet was flying round the track, meant that Alzen lost his lead after the first round of pitstops was completed. The Frikadelli Porsche, now with Patrick Huisman behind the wheel, had to hold off the Alzen BMW and the Falken Porsche; this trio being separated by a mere 0.6 seconds.
Still on the fight back, Frank Stippler was scored in ninth place after Lap 12; and he was on a mission, having just passed the CarCollection Motorsport SLS. He made up another spot, when the Falken-Motorsport Porsche crashed on the exit of the Fuchsröhre.
Staying in contention for a top-five place was the Wochenspiegel Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, fighting with its Manthey sister car in Pinta-colours. After the second pit stop cycle was completed it was the Alzen BMW taking the lead once again, ahead of the Frikadelli Racing Porsche and the Schubert BMW, which overcame its earlier clash with the Ford GT. Then things got wild, as Patrick Pilet, who was back in the car for another stint, touched with a slower Porsche on the GP track. Luckily it was just damage to the bodywork and no coolers were harmed. Next thing was the Alzen BMW stranding at the Galgenkopf.
The new order read Frikadelli Racing, ahead of Schubert Motorsport, Wochenspiegel, Pinta and Phoenix-Racing. There was still no clean view towards how this race would play out, as most of the teams were using different pitstop strategies. Next thing was the Pinta Porsche retiring on the GP track with a driveshaft failure. Still charging through the field was the Phoenix Audi, Johannes Stuck finding himself in second place with about 45 minutes left in the race. At its final pit stop, Frikadelli Racing teamboss Klaus Abbelen got behind the wheel of his Porsche 911 GT3 R and took the car home taking the chequered flag. The first overall victory for Abbelen, Pilet, Huisman and Frikadelli Racing was in the books. “Just fantastic! Not even a year ago I did my first ever laps of the Nordschleife and today I scored my first win. I feel pretty confident in the traffic by now, which makes me really happy and I’m looking forward to my next races around here,” a smiling Patrick Pilet said after the race.
But drama went on behind them, when Johannes Stuck was hit by a slower BMW coming into a Code 60 area. This resulted in an extra pit stop for the Phoenix-Audi R8 LMS ultra to repair the damage and get a new tire, handing second place to the Schubert BMW. “Max, Dominik and I were supposed to improve on our track knowledge this weekend and coming away with a second place finish is just awesome. The Schubert team did a superb job and we got more than we could hope for. I’m really looking forward to our next outing here,” said Abdulaziz Al Faisal, who shared the BMW with Max Sandritter and Dominik Baumann.
The battle for third place went right down to the finish line, with Jochen Krumbach passing Johannes Stuck on the final lap and crossing the line just 0.157 seconds ahead of the Audi. This gave the Wochenspiegel crew of Krumbach, Oliver Kainz, Georg Weiss and Michael Weiss a well deserved podium finish.
There was tough luck for British GT runners Lee Mowle and Joe Osborne; the two sharing an Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G50 but retiring after an hour of racing. Still leading the championship is Christoph Breuer and ElmarDeegener, who together with Dieter Schmidtmann scored their fourth class victory of the season.
The next round of the VLN takes place on August 24th.
Words & Images © Sören Herweg
