Author: Rob Fitzgerald

Round 5 of the 2018 season was an elongated 6 hour affair. Big news from practice and qualifying was the burnt remains of Hunter Abbott’s BMW having to be withdrawn; Hunter was added to one of the BMW cup cars to at least get some fun. Adam Christodoulou would take pole in the #6 Black Falcon Mercedes, with the top 4 separated by less than a second. Before racing began, we had several pieces of bad news with the Opel Manta off at Hatzenbach; Christian Menzel’s Ferrari, Norbert Siedler’s Frikadelli…

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Frikadelli racing continued their good form from last time out, with Norbert Siedler securing pole position for a very warm fourth VLN round of the year, the front row to himself as the #35 BMW M6 would be disqualified from qualifying. 136 cars set a time in qualifying, but with a slimmed down SP9/GT3 class, the opportunity was there for some of the lower class cars to get a good showing. The opening couple of corners saw contact between the Konrad Lamboghini & Phoenix Audi while the Wochenspiegel Ferraris leapt…

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After the spring break to make way for the 24 hours, VLN returned to the ‘ring for the 60th running of the H&R cup. As is usual post 24hr, the grid in the top class had thinned out a bit, but with a bolstered production category we still had an entry of over 160 cars. Fine weather with only a few white clouds would allow an uninterrupted qualifying session and it was a Ferrari lock-out with Christian Menzel on pole & Jochen Krumbach also on the front row; The Konrad…

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The grid will be formed: 1. Adam Christodoulou Mercedes #4 2. Fred Makowiecki Porsche #912 -1 lap gap- 3. Hubert Haupt Mercedes #6 4. Maxime Martin Aston Martin #007 5. Yelmer Buurman Mercedes #5 Other class lead battles on the same lap Cayman Cup #303 Moritz Krans / #302 Timo Mölig BMW Cup #244 Marc Ehret / #256 Tristan Viidas ProductionV5 #144 Adrenalin BMW 325 / #148 Team Weser-Ems Porsche Cayman Also of note – #22 Ferrari is on the verge of the top 10 Pace lap, safety car lap…

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08:30 local time & Pilet brings the Manthey Porsche in for a scheduled stop with allows Nico Müller back into the lead. The two cars swapping 2 minute leads and pitting 3 laps apart. The Aston Martin #007 was still in 3rd but the Land Audi was getting ever closer. Lap times were in the 9:30s at this stage of the race but there were still question marks over what the weather was going to do for the rest of Sunday. #22 Ferrari was continuing apace battling for a top…

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As daylight broke, the first bit of bad news went the way of Ricky Collard – having to bring the #60 BMW GT4 in for major attention of the electrical kind. Next would be the #123 Toyota Thailand car, more engine woes; but they have got this far so they were in no mood to quit – a couple of improvised repairs and the car was sent on its way. The journalists & Bernd Shneider continued their strong run; seemingly certain of a top 20 result – miles clear of…

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As the sun disappeared from view, Earl Bamber’s lead was being heavily compromised by bad luck through the slow zone timing; still over 10 seconds but the team having to think carefully. #50 KRS Porsche was running slow in Metzgesfeld, but able to get back to the pits. Gigaspeed have been having a rough time of it so far; now just to compound it the #59 has to be bought in with gearbox trouble. Only 7 hours into the race, and the pit garages are incredibly busy; the next victim…

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There has been big news since qualifying – a balance of performance change to give a bit more to the Audi R8 & BMW M6, but we are going to do our best to ignore such things. More dramatic though is the Konrad Lamborghini being disqualified from qualifying – the car will be starting from the very back of group 1. #912 Manthey came into the pits at the end of lap 1 with a slow puncture; but would have plenty of time to recover. Good start from the leading…

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#40 Aston before even being able to take the start, seen stopped in the middle of the track at Hohenrain. The second group took the green flag in quite a muddled order, the KTM dropping behind the Hyundai before getting the power back down; however a clear lead was being built up for the alternatively fuelled #320 Porsche. Not a good start for Niels Borum’s SP8T BMW, coming into the pits at the end of the pace lap. Group three went five wide on the GP loop, but was lead…

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For those unfamiliar, the format of this session is the 30 cars who secured a spot in this session will take to the track one by one (in 20 second intervals) to first do an out lap then two flying laps. Fastest time sets the grid A random draw took place earlier and it was Sven Müller in the Falken Porsche followed by Matt Campbell driving the Frikadelli Porsche & the #47 Mann-Filter Mercedes leading the field away in perfect conditions. For what was supposed to be a warm up…

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The Session started with fine weather, but question marks over whether times would improve. Bad news from last night, the #64 Black Falcon Porsche was unable to be repaired and has been posted as a retirement. Immediately out of the pits, #80 Porsche of Kevin Warum had a wheel collapse on him, having to pull off. Edoardo Bugan in the #248 hit the wall and the huge amount of fluid leaking at Wippermann would ruin the early part of the session. Jens Klingmana was trying his best in the Falken…

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The session started with a still damp track, but somebody forgot to tell the drivers as the leading cars were straight into the 08:20s – Christopher Hasse (Phoenix) & Kelvin Van der Linde (Land) setting the early pace. #100 BMW Z4 (running to last generation GT3 regs) was flying on the first lap, fighting hard for space with the #1 Land Audi. The alternative fuelled #13 Viper (different car to previous years) was running around the middle of the pack all evening. #306 Porsche Cayman Cup car made it past…

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As the rain eased off slightly, the cars took to the green hell slightly delayed and with barrier repairs still occurring at some areas of the track. Disaster on the out lap for #42 Lexus as the engine let go in dramatic fashion. A storming first 20 minutes of the session for Adrien de Leener in the #15 Audi setting a 09:12 – 17 seconds clear of the field. Relatively clean running, but about half an hour into the session we saw an intervention vehicle out at Hohe Acht. Also…

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The 24hr uses a slightly different track layout, so this weekend was an opportunity for cars to prepare for the big race; in addition this is a chance to book a place in the top 30 qualifying. A near 90 car grid began forming shortly after 11am & the field would be led away by Robin Frijns in the WRT Audi #8 followed by a top performing Lars Kern in Manthey #12,the Glickenhaus and Jörg Müller behind the wheel of the aging BMW Z4 #100. A quick start from Yelmer…

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VLN2 7 April 2018 Round 2 of the VLN, organised by the DMV, saw 175 cars take to the track during qualifying on a chilly, but sunny, morning. The top 23 SP9 class teams all within 10 seconds suggested we were in for a hectic race; but it was Manthey to the front, again refusing to play BOP politics. #911 beat out #912 – but both were below 8:00 (as was the Mercedes #14 of Black Falcon). Drama on the formation lap as the #48 Mercedes of Christian Hohenadel spun…

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1⁰ Celsius & thick fog greeted us for qualifying at the opening round of VLN – the 64th running of the ADAC Westfalenfahrt. A pretty clean session, albeit delayed by 20 minutes, just a couple of lazy spins, a smoking and/or steaming #400 Cayman and heavy rear end damage to the #609 Porsche of Wolfgang Destree. As the session came to a close, there was a coming together involving three of the production BMWs at the Yokohama S, but at least two of them would be fine for the race.…

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