VLN 35th DMV 4-Stunden-Rennen - Race Report
Manthey’s Domination Continues

The qualifying session for the second VLN race of the year turned out to be another shootout for pole position. In the end Marcel Fässler ended the timed session on top of the timing sheets, scoring his first ever VLN pole and turning in his fastest time ever around the Nordschleife.

From the start Fässler took the lead, but had to surrender it to a hard charging Chris Mamerow during the opening lap. Mamerow was able to separate himself a little bit from the two Phoenix Audis and the Manthey Porsche, but he was back in the pack after the first rounds of pit stops.

Due to another pitstop strategy, the Audis of Phoenix and Black Falcon were able to lead for part of the race; the number 1 Audi of Black Falcon having once again the lead for numerous laps.

The final hour of the race proved to be once again an interesting one. Marcel Tiemann in the Manthey Porsche 997 GT3 R and Chris Mamerow in the Mamerow Racing GT3 R were fighting for the lead, while the Audi R8 LMS of Marcel Fässler, Frank Stippler and Mike Rockenfeller were trying to hold off the Porsche 997 GT3 R Hybrid of Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler.

The duel for the win was decided when Chris Mamerow crashed the Porsche at the Schwalbenschwanz section, apparently getting caught up in lapped traffic. The win was eventually decided for the Manthey car, scoring another win for the new Porsche on its second Nordschleifen outing.

“A great race, it was really fun driving today. The battle with the Audis and the BMW was so much fun. That’s racing,” said a very pleased Romain Dumas after the race.

The fight for second and third was getting more intensive, but in the end the Audi was able to hold off the GT3 R Hybrid. Rockenfeller, Fässler and Stippler were very pleased with the results. Rockenfeller: “We had a good day today, the car was going well. We gained some more data which is very good. Of course I would have loved to win this race but the 24 Hours Nürburgring is more important to us. And I think we will fight for the win in May.”

Third place went to the Porsche 997 GT3 R Hybrid, meaning for the first time a hybrid car finished on the VLN podium. The car was able to do an extra lap per fuel-load, which resulted in some lead laps for the car. “A great race for our new car; who would have thought we would finish our second race on the podium. I think we are heading in the right direction,” said a very happy Jörg Bergmeister.

The BMW M3 GT2 of Andy Priaulx, Augusto Farfus, Pedro Lamy and Dirk Adorf was out of the contention for the win early in the race after problems with a driveshaft occurred, resulting in a lengthy pitstop for the BMW.

The next race for the VLN is in two weeks, and this one will be the dress rehearsal for all the 24 hours hopefully.

Full results here

Sören Herweg