Just two weeks after the Nürburgring 24 Hours the fifth VLN round of the 2014 season was on tap. With 150 cars the field showed to be strong, considering the short time gap for turning around your car after the race twice around the clock. The field might have lacked its usual number of GT3 cars, with just six cars entered, but all the other classes had numbers comparable to earlier season races.
After the Nürburgring 24 Hours weekend was run with almost no rain, the Eifel region greeted everyone with a cold and partially wet day. Qualifying was run on a dry track and Uwe Alzen definitely put the hammer down, burning a time of 8:02.646 minutes into the tarmac of the Nordschleife and the GP Loop in its short cut version. Qualifying second was the Porsche 911 GT3 R of Frikadelli Racing Team ahead of the Wochenspiegel Porsche and the Jürgen Alzen Motorsport Ford GT.
But after qualifying over a third of the teams were penalized for a yellow flag infraction. At the Flugplatz section of the circuit one of the Opel Astra OPC Cup cars by Bonk Motorsport had a pretty bad off and many teams were caught speeding in the yellow flag zone. After what happened in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, when two drivers were excluded from the event for driving dangerously in a yellow flag zone, race control once again issued severe punishments. All teams that were caught speeding got their fastest lap canceled, while some teams lost all of their times and had to start the race from the back of their respective groups. Among those punished were the two front row sitting cars, who got all of their times taken from them, while the Wochenspiegel Porsche lost it’s fastest lap, handing the pole position to the Jürgen Alzen Ford GT. Because the clean up of this mess took so long, the race started with a two hour delay and was cut from 4 hours to a distance of 2:45 hours, so full points for the championship were still awarded. As the grid lined up, some of the cars were missing, not taking up the race in protest against the harsh punishment. Among those was the Uwe Alzen BMW Z4 GT3.
The new grid order had the Ford GT in Pole Position, followed by the Wochenspiegel Porsche, the GT Corse by Rinaldi Ferrari F458 GT3 and the TwinBusch Motorsport Audi. When the lights finally went green, the track was in a damp condition with light rain falling in some sections. Oliver Kainz was able to take the lead in the Wochenspiegel Porsche at the start of the race. Dominik Schwager was also passed by the GT Corse Ferrari, the TwinBusch Audi and the GetSpeed Performance Porsche 911 GT3 Cup before they hit the Nordschleife for the first time under race conditions. Charging from a 48th starting position to the front was Sabine Schmitz, the fast lady passed all but the first three cars on the opening lap and she definitely was on a mission.
Schmitz kept on going and on lap two she was able to close an almost 20 seconds gap to the leading Wochenspiegel Porsche, taking the lead on the Döttinger Höhe. Behind the Frikadelli and the Wochenspiegel Porsche, Marco Seefried was still holding third ahead of the Jürgen Alzen Ford GT and the TwinBusch Motorsport Audi R8. The order of the remaining five positions inside the top 10 stayed in flux for much of the opening laps. Markus Palttala in the raceunion Teichmann Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup and Christopher Mies in the GetSpeed Performance pendant had an intense fight for positions, passing each other multiple times. Behind the two Reinhold Renger in the all-new Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, was able to hold on to seventh ahead of numerous 997 bodied Cup Porsches.
Just over 30 minutes after the start of the race the TwinBusch Audi R8 was pushed into its pit stall and subsequentially retiring with a technical problem. The Wochenspiegel Porsche was tumbling down the order, as the team made the wrong call for wet weather tires while all the cars up front used slicks for the start of the race. It might proved difficult to get the tires to heat up properly but once they were in their temperature window they proved to be the faster tires on a track that was only slightly damp in some sections. This resulted in an early pit stop for Oliver Kainz after three laps. Up front Sabine Schmitz was able to use her slick tires to the optimum, building a sizable lead, leading by over 20 seconds after four laps. The fight for second place was on, Marco Seefried in the GT Corse had to let the Jürgen Alzen Ford GT passed with the tires of the Ferrari falling out of their working window.
Just off the podium the two Cup Porsches of GetSpeed and raceunion Teichmann Racing were still lapping the Nordschleife nose to tail, changing positions multiple times. Markus Palttala got a slight break after seven laps, when Christopher Mies dived for the pits to hand over to his teammate Steve Jans. But the fight was back on just a lap later, when Palttala handed over to his team mate Felipe Laser. Also pitting after lap seven were the GT Corse Ferrari and the Jürgen Alzen Ford GT. While Dominik Schwager stayed in the Ford GT, Seefried handed the Ferrari over to his teammate Arturo Devigus. After lap eight the Frikadelli Racing Porsche also visited the pit lane, with Sabine Schmitz handing over the car to Frank Stippler. Meanwhile the Wochenspiegel Porsche was retired on lap seven with a technical problem.
As the race was in the final hour the Frikadelli Racing Porsche still held a sizable lead over the Jürgen Alzen Ford GT. Behind them Alexander Mattschull still was able to hold on to third, but it was just a matter of time until he would lose it to one of the two Cup Porsches of GetSpeed and raceunion Teichmann Racing. The two Cup 911s were still running nose to tail. The final rounds of pit stops saw only a driver change for the Jürgen Alzen Ford GT, with team boss Jürgen Alzen taking over the steering wheel from Dominik Schwager. The Ford GT was also fitted with intermediate tires, while all the other cars stayed on slicks. The decision to use intermediates proved to be wrong, as Jürgen Alzen was struggeling and running wide on the GP loop just a lap after his pit stops. Presumably during his off he picked up some debris that damaged the tires and Jürgen Alzen had to do almost a complete lap of the Nordschleife with a front left puncture. This took the Ford GT out of the top 10 positions and promoted the two Cup Porsches onto the podium. After the final rounds of pit stops the order was set, with Frikadelli Racing holding an advantage of about half a minute and the GetSpeed Porsche being 7 seconds clear of the raceunion Teichmann Racing car.
The victory was a second of the season for Frikadelli Racing, and just like their previous victory in 2014 the team took advantage from the proposition that not all drivers had to get behind the wheel of the car because of a shortened race. “Our penalty after qualifying was well deserved, we looked at the data and you could see that we didn’t obey the speed limit in the yellow flag zone. Sabine then asked to start the car so she could iron out her mistake and she did that very well”, said Klaus Abbelen, who alongside Patrick Huisman didn’t get a chance to drive the car. “We took a gamble of using slicks all the way throughout the race, which was difficult during the heat up phase of the tires but once they were on temperature they proved to be faster. We actually had planned to do a driver change at our final pit stop and sit Patrick into the car, but then we decided Frank already knows the conditions out on track so it was safer to let him stay in the car.”
Second position went to the GetSpeed Trio Adam Osieka, Steve Jans and Christopher Mies. Just like at the winning Frikadelli Porsche Adam Osieka also didn’t get behind the wheel of the Cup Porsche. “This race was more like a sprint race. Of course the weather helped us, in the damp conditions the GT3 cars can’t build up their full downforce closing the gap between us and them. We still had to attack very hard, the Teichmann car didn’t give us a second to breathe, it was a good and clean fight. Lets hope we can do this again at the next round“, said a smiling Steve Jans.
In the end it was a fine third for the raceunion Teichmann Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, where only Markus Palttala and Felipe Laser got into the cockpit and their teammate Dominik Brinkmann followed the race from the pit box. Markus Paltalla after the race: “It was a very exciting race in extremely difficult conditions. I enjoyed the 1st stint moving up the field while trying to find out where the track is dry and where it’s wet. It didn’t help that it was changing every single lap! We drove nose to tail with Christopher and switched positions several times, it was a hard but fair battle, just as it should be. I think there was never more than a few seconds between our Porsches throughout the race. I thought we had it when they pitted a lap earlier for the final splash, but unfortunately, Steve got by Felipe on the penultimate lap. I’m of course a little disappointed to finish 2nd as winning the class is always our main target, but to be on the overall podium is simply awesome. Thanks to my team and teammates for a great job!“
The next to positions also went to two Cup Porsches with the Frank Kräling, Christopher Brück, Marc Gindorf car holding of the Black Falcon duo Andreas Weishaupt and Tim Scheerbarth. A fine sixth finish went to the Audi TT-RS of Markus Oestreich and Thomas Schmid, ahead of the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3. The next two positions went to the two Audi TTRS2 of LMS Engineering and the GT Corse Ferrari secured the final top ten spot.
The next VLN round takes place in four weeks time, on August 2nd.
Soren Herweg
