A close look at the results of early season VLN races almost always pays off if you’re looking for hints towards future programmes.
In an era where debutants for the Nurburgring 24 Hours, indeed for any race on the Nordschliefe, need to obtain their ‘Ring permit before passing go in the quickest machinery and, as always, as a circuit where experience truly counts there are often familiar names in the entry.
VLN 1 2018 was no different.
In 32nd place in the results were the familiar pairing of Tracy Krohn and Nic Jonsson, scoring a 2nd place in the SP7 class in their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. A run at both the Le Mans and Nürburgring 24 Hours looks on for 2018.
49th (and 116th!) in the results came the pair of Hyundai-entered i30 TCRs with both Nicola Larini and Gabriele Tarquini entered in both, the #831 Hyundai finishing 3rd in the TCR class.
Hyundai’s circuit racing activities are on the up and both Italian superstars could well be set to feature in the car for the N24, but for Tarquini this also gives an ideal opportunity for the Italian to get more competitive track time ahead of the WTCR support event to the N24 which, as the WTCC has in recent years will utilise the full N24 circuit.
In 60th position, FIA WEC bound Charlie Eastwood featured in a V5 class Cayman, scoring a second place in class, Eastwood no doubt en route to a full ‘Ring Permit.
In 86th place overall came one of the Aston Martin test Centre entered cars, a GT8 for the familiar pairing of Manu Collard and Matthieu Vaxiviere. The pair, plus Francois Perrodo are working towards an N24 programme with a Renault RS01. No explanation yet for the absence of Perrodo, we’ll follow up on this one at the Prologue next week.
DSC caught up with 2016 Audi TT Cup Champ (and 2018 Phoenix Audi driver) Philip Ellis at the Dunlop test at Aragon last month, and, as he revealed, he is listed here too, en route to his ‘Ring Permit, via a double entry in a pair of Toyota GT86s here.
Also listed in the same cars was new Mercedes-AMG works driver Raffaelle Marciello, an interesting combo of Audi and AMG talent then. Their day went well, they took both the win and second place in V3!
Whilst the Kissling Motorsport ‘Foxtail’ Opel Manta took a class win in H2 our interest was piqued by a car that wasn’t classified as a finisher, finishing 8 laps down on the winning car. This was the #621 Opel Calibra and the name that caught the eye was one Carlos Tavares, just the latest in a series of automotive OEM bigwigs to come and play, the CEO of PSA Group, which bought Opel/ Vauxhall a year ago apparently sampling one of his new acquisitions previous creations!
The #133 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo, entered in SP8 posted a DNF on Saturday but this is an effort that has plenty to draw the eye.
A planned two car effort at the N24 with Giti tyres will see one car crewed by a full Pro team with Nico Verdonck, Marc Basseng and Manuel Lauch on parade over the weekend – That will give the regular Aston Martin presence in this class something to think about!
Both Michael Lyons and British GT racer Finlay Hutchison also appeared on the entry in a Walkenhorst BMW M4 GT4 and Renault Megane KRS respectively but the final name to draw the eye is an even more interesting one, Lamborghini factory driver Mirko Bortolotti (above)was out and lapping in a BMW M235i Cup car – Lamborghini say that their man was simply ticking boxes for the ‘Ring Permit and doing this one for fun. We hope that’s not entirely true!
Oh and one final point – the audience for the VLN is growing, massively, the addition of the live video stream with RSL English language commentary is producing a massive uplift in audience figures – Expect thst to have an effect some way down the line on international commercial interest too!
Stop Press – with thanks to regular reader, and Midweek Motorsport listener Right Turn Lover there was another very interesting lower order ‘Ring Permit ‘virgin’, the #462 ProSport V5 class Porsche Cayman featuring Le Mans winner and ex WEC World Champion Andre Lotterer en route to future ‘Ring racing options!
