Reports

VLN - 33rd DMV 4-Stunden Rennen Report

© VLN.de

The VLN BFGoodrich Langstrecken Meisterschaft Nürburgring finally got underway this weekend with the 33rd DMV 4-Stunden-Rennen. After the cancellation of the ADAC Westfalenfahrt at the end of March due to snow 230 teams had found their way back to the circuit, 210 of them would start on Saturday. Marc Lieb and Marcel Tiemann in the #111 Manthey Racing Porsche 997 GT3 RSR were on pole position.

After a lap behind the pace car the race was given a ‘go’ at 13:22 and the field raced towards the first corner on the Grand Prix circuit. By the time the cars got to the NGK-chicane it was still the Manthey Porsche in the lead, ahead of the #87 Zakspeed Racing Viper of Tom Coronel, Duncan Huisman and Sascha Bert. But on the first lap on the Nordschleife the Viper managed to pass the Porsche and take the lead. The first lap also meant the end of the race for the Konrad Motorsport Porsche of Sean Edwards and Dennis Rosteck. Rosteck was hit halfway round the Nordschleife and the damage too much to continue.

At the front the Zakspeed Viper in the hands of Tom Coronel pushed hard to get away from the field and by the end of lap four the top eight was separated by almost 40 seconds, only the Manthey Porsche managed to stay very close. Shortly before 14:00 the Kissling Corvette and Schubert BMW Z4 were also going slowly, with accident damage to the front left of the cars. Both cars returned to the pit box and were retired. Just before the 1 hour mark, after six laps the Viper and Porsche were side-by-side and as they reached the end of the straight the Manthey team took back the lead of the race.

While the Manthey team increased its lead over the Viper lap after lap, it was the HiSAQ Porsche of Richard Westbrook, Frank Stippler and Emmanuel Collard that set the fastest lap at the halfway point of the race, an 8:31.455. Only 13 cars were on the lead lap.

© VLN.de

After 15 laps the Viper came in for a pitstop, this resulted in the loss of two positions as the Land Motorsport and HiSAQ Porsche passed the Viper. The Land Porsche (driven by Marc Basseng and Johannes Stuck) was unable to maintain its position though. Just after 18 laps were completed the Porsche went off the track at Metzgesfeld and hit the barrier, the car suffered too much damage to continue the race.

In the final hour the Zakspeed Viper got back on the tail of the Manthey Porsche after this car suffered a puncture but the Viper, now with Huisman onboard, still had to make a pit stop. Unfortunately things then went wrong for Huisman. The Dutchman reported a vibration at the back of his car on the high speed parts of the circuit and ended the race after going wide in one of the turns. The car went onto the grass, hit a bump and ended up in the barrier. A damaged left rear wheel, front bodywork and a stuck throttle were the result.

The #111 Manthey-Porsche went on to win the race, setting the fastest lap as well (a 8:25.492), the #131 HiSAQ Competition Porsche finished second and thanks to the bad luck of others it was the #500 Opel Astra V8 DTM of Andreas Schall, Ralf Schall and Volker Strycek that clinched third place.

Tomas Enge and Stefan Mücke, competing in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, took the class win in the SP8 category (due to the retirement of the Zakspeed Viper).

The next round of the BFGoodrich Langstrecken Meisterschaft Nürburgring will take place on April 26th, the 50th ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup, another four hour race.