VLN, 51st ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup – Race Report
Exciting To The Last Second

Unlike in the last years, when a lot of teams left their cars at home in the last race before the 24 hours Nürburgring, this year’s tune up event to the 24 Hours Ring had a very impressive entry list. The main battle would be between Manthey Racing and the four Audi R8 LMS.

In qualifying, Marc Lieb scored the first pole position for the Manthey Porsche 997 GT3 RSR; second was the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S, with the four entered Audis qualifying 6th – 9th.

Right from the start of the race the Manthey Duo of Tiemann and Lieb dominated the race. They never gave up their lead until lap 17, when the duo had their second pit stop. This was when Frank Stippler recorded the first Nordschleifen lead-laps for the new Audi R8 LMS. But after he turned the car over to his partner Marc Basseng, Christian Abt in one of the Abt R8s took over the role as the lead pursuer.

The distance between the Audi and the Porsche was always in the 20-40 second range, so nothing was decided. After his 26th lap Marc Lieb had to come back in for a splash and dash - this was the opportunity for Christian Abt and Marc Basseng to slip past the Factory driver and with only a few minutes left on the clock it looked like the first R8 victory ever.

But Marc Lieb began hunting the two Audis. First he caught Marc Basseng in the part of Ex – Mühle, which is a little bit after halfway point of the final lap; then he set his eyes on Christian Abt, and the two came side by side onto the start/finish straight.

And than something unexpected happened; Christian Abt turned for the Pit Lane and the way was free for Marc Lieb to score the second win of the season for Manthey Racing. Christian Abt fell back to third place as Marc Basseng was able to slip past his marque colleague.

“I don’t know why Abt went for the pit lane, it was clear that the race was over. But if they don’t want to win, we will take it,” a very happy Marc Lieb said in the post race press conference.

Christian Abt tried to explain why he went for the pit lane, “I though there was still a lap left as I expected the race to end at 16:00; but that wasn’t the case and now I know why - the race started 20 seconds early. If we did have to do another lap I would have run out of gas somewhere in the green hell. “

After an exciting race, everyone is expecting to see the true performance at the Big Race, the Nürburgring 24 Hours in three week time. And after that there is hopefully no politics on the track and only where it is supposed to be, in the parliament.

Full results here.

Sören Herweg