Cold and wet weather greeted everyone, who made it to the Nürburgring for the third VLN round of the 2015 season. The first race after the Nürburgring 24 Hours saw an entry of 141 cars, still healthy enough especially considering there were clashes with the ADAC GT Masters (Spa Francorchamps) and the Blancpain Endurance Series (Paul Ricard).
Fast times had to be hammered out early in Qualifying, the track was wet but rainfall was only reported in parts of the circuit. The Frikadelli Racing Team secured pole position, thanks to a 9:16.017 minutes lap time, ahead of the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of the Wochenspiegel Team Manthey, just a mere 4/10s of the pole position time.
Third place went to the BMW Z4 GT3 of Walkenhorst Motorsport, but after a shunt of Felipe Fernandes Laser during his second flying lap, he and his teammates Jesse Krohn and Michela Cerruti weren’t able to take part in the race, due to severe front end damage on the BMW. Making the most of the wet conditions was the Audi TT-RS2 of LMS Engineering, setting fourth best time and thereby securing pole position for the second starting group. Behind the Frikadelli and Wochenspiegel Porsche’s, the privateer Audi R8 of Düchting Motorsport and the Frikadelli Porsche 911 GT3 Cup America made up the second row. The third line saw the second Walkenhorst Z4 line up next to the GT4 Aston Martin of Avia Racing. From there on it was a collection of different iterations and developments of the Porsche 911.
When the lights went green, Sabine Schmitz was able to use her Pole Position to take the lead into the first corner. Behind her Oliver Kainz aboard the Wochenspiegel Porsche 911 GT3 RSR held second, with Christopher Brück in the second Frikadelli 911 taking third and holding off Maximilian Hackländer in the Düchting Audi R8.
The lone remaining Walkenhorst Z4 with Matias Henkola behind the wheel held fifth when the field hit the Nordschleife, but at the completion of lap 1 he had to surrender multiple positions to the hard charging Porsche 911s behind him. One of the biggest movers up the order was Christian Menzel in the raceunion Teichmann Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, being fourth at the completion the first lap.
Up front it was still Sabine Schmitz holding a narrow lead over Oliver Kainz, but during lap two Schmitz got mixed up with her speed limiter in one of the slow zones, which gave Kainz a chance to lead the race. The drama intensified at the end of lap four, when Oliver Kainz was hit by a lapped car upon returning onto the GP track. The crash into the gravel trap took the Wochenspiegel Porsche 911 GT3 RSR out of the race, handing the lead back to Sabine Schmitz, who herself decided to pit on lap four.
Just minutes later Manthey Racing was also hit with tough luck for their other contending car, when Michael Christensen had an off track excursion in the Porsche 911 GT3 MR. At the time of his incident the Porsche works driver held third position, but due to the accident damage the team retired the car.
Due to Schmitz’s early pit stop it was now three Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars at the top of the timing screen, with Kräling/ Gindorf/ Brück leading ahead of ‘Gerwin’/Metzger and Hennerici/ Menzel. When everyone completed its first pit stop it was the Frikadelli Racing Team Porsche 911 GT3 R back in the lead, a position they were able to hold on to until the falling of the chequered flag. Even a small oil fire at the final pit stop couldn’t take the victory away from the trio Klaus Abbelen, Patrick Huisman and Sabine Schmitz. The fifth VLN victory for the Frikadelli Racing Team also meant the 200th overall victory for Porsche in the #38 years of the VLN championship.
The order of the final two podium spots were still strongly contested right until the clock hitting zero. In the end it was Manuel Metzger and ‘Gerwin’ securing second place in the Black Falcon Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, Frank Kräling, Marc Gindorf and Christopher Brück crossed the line in third place but due to a 80 seconds time penalty for a speeding infringement they were relegated to fourth. Claming an uncontested third place were Christian Menzel and Marc Hennerici in the raceunion Teichmann Racing Porsche 911 GT3. Rounding out an all Porsche top five was the GetSpeed Performance 911 GT3 Cup of Steve Jans and Adam Osieka. Best non Porsche was the BMW Z4 GT3 of Matias Henkola, David Schiwietz and Anders Buchardt. A strong performance gave the Audi TT-RS2 of LMS Engineering a respected ninth place.
The next round of the VLN takes place in two weeks time.
Soren Herweg
