In the end there were 141 cars taking up qualifying for the fourth VLN round of the 2015 season, with the star of the show clearly being the new Mercedes-AMG GT3. And the new GT3 car from AMG made quite an impression in qualifying, when Bernd Schneider hammered out an 8:02.897 to secure the pole position.
But there was also major drama to report, with the Rowe Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 standing in second place on the grid, albeit about 6 seconds adrift from the Mercedes-AMG GT3, the team made a last second attempt to get pole that didn’t quite go according to the plan.
On his final flying lap Nico Bastian crashed in the Hatzenbach section, with the damage too heavy to be repaired on site the car was already out of the race before it started. The Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 then took up second place, with the Frikadelli Racing Team Porsche 911 GT3 R taking up third. Fourth and fifth place went to two cars that clashed during qualifying, when the fourth placed Audi R8 LMS ultra of Phoenix Racing had a moment with the Falken Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R. The new Lexus RC-F GT3 qualified ninth (Farnbacher Racing) and eleventh (Lexus Racing).
When the lights went green it was Alexandre Imperatori aboard the Falken 911 on a roll, by the time the field hit the first corner he was already alongside the pole sitting Mercedes-AMG GT3 and before the field hit the Nordschleife he took the lead. When the field completed its first lap Imperatori held a 2,2 second advantage over Thomas Jäger in the Mercedes-AMG GT3, who had to hold off Jochen Krumbach in the Wochenspiegel Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 with Jesse Krohn behind the wheel. Christian Mamerow held fifth in the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra, with Michael Christensen in the Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 Cup MR seventh ahead of the Farnbacher Lexus. Due to the heat in the Eifel region, the Frikadelli Racing Team decided to open their race with a short stint in order to put team boss Klaus Abbelen in the car, so he could do his mandatory stint. That resulted in the car finishing the first lap in eight place.
The following lap saw Alexandre Imperatori extend his lead, while Thomas Jäger was also able to separate himself from his competitors and began the hunt down of the Porsche, which resulted in the cars lapping the Nordschleife bumper to bumper from lap three onwards. Meanwhile, Jesse Krohn was able to take third by getting past Krumbach on lap two, but he already had lost quite some ground to the two cars ahead. Lap four saw pit stops for the Frikadelli Porsche, with Klaus Abbelen handing over to Patrick Huisman, and the third placed Walkenhorst BMW, where Jesse Krohn stayed behind the wheel. Up front it was still the Falken Porsche and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 lapping bumper to bumper, up until lap six when Imperatori and handed the car over to Peter Drumbreck. Just one lap later it was Thomas Jäger hitting the pit lane, to hand the Mercedes-AMG GT3 over to Jan Seyffarth. This then moved the Phoenix Racing Audi into the lead.
Once everybody had completed at least one pit stop it was the Walkenhorst BMW finding itself in the lead, this was due to the fact, that Jesse Krohn put in some remarkable lap times and making the most out of his Dunlop tires. Second and third were held by Porsche 911 GT3 R’s with Patrick Huisman leading Peter Dumbreck. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 held fourth, trying to hunt down the Falken Porsche, while the positions five and sixth were in the hands of Manthey Racing with the Wochenspiegel RSR holding off the Breuer/ Lietz/ Christensen GT3 Cup MR. After twelve laps the leading Walkenhorst Z4 and the Frikadelli 911 came in for their scheduled second stop, with Michela Cerruti taking over for Jesse Krohn and Sabine Schmitz replacing Patrick Huisman. The Merceds-AMG GT3 also had to come in, this stop being an unscheduled one, the car was pushed into the box with a wheel bearing problem. After a repair stop of around 30 minutes the car returned to the track to gain valuable data for its development process.
The racing continued to be intense, with the Breuer/ Lietz/ Christensen taking the lead in the intermediate due to the fact that they could complete 9 laps on a tank of fuel, but once they pitted it was Michela Cerruti back in the lead, on lap 19 Cerruti turned the car over to her teammate Felipe Fernandes Laser. Meanwhile the Falken Porsche was able to take second from the Frikadelli 911. At the start of the final hour it was the Falken Porsche in the lead, holding a 40 seconds advantage over the Frikadelli 911, those two still had to make their final pit stop and with the Walkenhorst Z4 just a minute back the Z4 retook the lead once the two Porsches visited their crew for the final fuel up. Laser then drove the win home, giving Walkenhorst their first overall VLN victory and also making a return to the winning ways for Dunlop.
Falken Motorsports finished the race in second, with Alexandre Imperatori and Peter Dumbreck securing the best placed finish for their Porsche 911 GT3 R. A further 35 seconds back the Frikadelli Racing Team Porsche 911 GT3 R finished third. The next two places went to Manthey Racing, with Jochen Krumbach/ Georg Weiss/ Oliver Kainz crossing the line in fourth ahead of their teammates Christoph Breuer/ Michael Christensen/ Richard Lietz. Phoenix Racing finished the race in sixth, one place in front of the best placed Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. By finishing seventh Christian Menzel and Marc Hennerici won the class for the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars for the raceunion Teichmann Racing Team. Eight went to Steve Jans and Adam Osieka in the GetSpeed Performance Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and the second Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 finished ninth. On it’s debut the Lexus RC-F GT3 finished the race in tenth place, with Dominik and Mario Farnbacher also securing the SPX class honours. Their Lexus Racing sister car finished eleventh. After their recovery drive the Mercedes-AMG GT3 completed 24 laps, finishing 52nd.
The next VLN round takes place on August 1st.
Soeren Herweg
