Sensational success for the Falken team. With a surprising performance, on Saturday afternoon the Falken Motorsports team started in the pole position of the 59th ADAC Westfalenfahrt, the opening of the VLN racing season. With all types of weather conditions and extremely fast lap times – the Falken team had the fastest lap of the VLN race with an average speed of 174.157 km/h – the Slicks, Intermediates and rain tires were able to stand up to extreme conditions. Then there were technical problems only a few laps into the race: Jostling forced the Falken Porsche into the box in lap 4, and again two laps later with drive shaft problems. The drive shaft had to be completely replaced, putting the team in 139th place in the final standings.

“Of course, the qualifying also served as an initial way to determine our position with a view to the 24 hour race”, explains experienced Falken expert Wolf Henzler. “Our entire team has made enormous progress in the past year, which we were able to showcase. Going by performance, everything was perfect; the tires were glued to the asphalt, allowing us to complete extremely fast laps during the qualifying. The pole position was the appropriate reward. After that, it was just bad luck.”

The team viewed the opportunities to test the new Falken racing tires as very positive. The race offered all types of asphalt conditions – from a dry to very wet track, making it possible to use Slicks, Intermediates and rain tires.

“The replacement of the drive shaft in only 40 minutes was a real master performance on the part of the box crew”, says team manager Sven Schnabl. “Every movement was perfect. Even if we would have liked to do without the technical challenge, we at least know that everything will be done perfectly in such cases.”

- Falken Europe

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The entry list for the second highlight of the VLN endurance racing championship at the Nurburgring, the race in the ‘Green Hell’, is fantastic. The organizing MSC Ruhrblitz Bochum has received more than 190 entries for the 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen ‘um die Pokal der Opel-Werke Bochum’. This demonstrates once more the high level of the endurance racing championship and its status as the most popular club sporting series in Europe. What, however, would be a full grid without an appropriate quality? This is what the VLN fans do not need to worry about. More than three dozens of top cars in the leading group and a great number of ambitious privateers in the wide middle field of the series will provide genuine and living motor sport. The race over the distance of six hours will be started on 27th of August at 12 o’clock exactly. The positions on the grid will be decided during the time practice between 08:30 and 10:00hrs. Entrance is free all around the Nordschleife. Tickets giving access to the paddocks and to the open grandstands at the Grand Prix Circuit are available at the cash boxes for a family-friendly price of 12 Euros. A 30 minutes summary of the race will be shown in channel Sport 1 on 2nd September at 16:00hrs.

The Nurburgring Nordschleife fascinates all race drivers, starting from the ambitious privateer up to the experienced and professional race driver – hardly anyone can withstand the magical attraction of this 24.369 kilometers long tarmac track in the Eifel region. More than 500 drivers from Germany, Europe and the rest of the world will take part in the second 6h race of the 2011 season and finally celebrate the fastest ones. There will not only be big fights for the win at the end of the race day but also for the may cups in the more than 30 different classes organized within the endurance racing championship.

ROWE-Racing will take the start with visible pride. Roland Rehfeld (Blankenfelde/ Germany) and Alexander Roloff (Berlin/ Germany), who dominated at the last race together with Michael Zehe (Floersheim/ Germany), will this time be supported by Thomas Jager (Munich/ Germany) for the Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen and aim at another result on the podium. The sister car will be driven by Zehe and his team mates Hubert Haupt, Klaus Rader (both from Munich/ Germany) and Marco Schelp (Berlin/ Germany). The competition is incredibly high even in the own camp: Black Falcon, Mamerow-Racing and Horn-Motorsport are prepared to take up the challenge for the win.

Audi will be represented amongst others by the experienced sports car drivers Christopher Haase (Kulmbach/ Germany), Christopher Mies (Heiligenhaus/ Germany), Marc Basseng (Leutenbach/ Germany) and Frank Stippler (Bad Munstereifel/ Germany) in two R8 LMS entered by Phoenix-Racing. The super sports car from Ingolstadt has recently gained its 100th victory in Asia which shall be followed by the 101st success at the Nordschleife. The spearhead of the Porsche teams has been entered by Manthey-Racing. The crew which is based in Meuspath near the Nurburgring is still waiting for their first victory of the season with the GT3-911. The only success for the team in the current season was scored with the Hybrid Porsche at the fourth round. For the 6h race, the green yellow 911 GT3 R will be driven by Marc Lieb (Ludwigsburg/ Germany), Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) and Arno Klasen (Karlshausen/ Germany) who finally wishes to celebrate his 25th overall victory. The two Porsche teams of Pinta- and Frikadelli-Racing have also already demonstrated their performance but their statistic figures of the season do neither include a victory so far.

The class of VLN Specials up to 2600 cc cylinder capacity and turbo engines (SP4T) will feature an interesting addition for the Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen. Whilst there will only be four cars at the start, they all figure totally different concepts. The successful Ford Focus entered by the ‘FH Köln Motorsport powered by Ford’ will meet the Audi TT RS of the team Raeder-Motorsport who have contracted a top team with drivers Frank Biela (Monaco), Christian Hohenadel (Illingen/ Germany) and Michael Ammermuller (Pocking/ Germany). Diversion will also be provided by Martin Muller (Griesheim/ Germany) and Ulli Andreé in the Volvo C30 T5 as well as by the four Italians Paolo Previati, Giuseppe Tobia, Matteo Cocovi and Sabina Raviglione in a Renault Clio NZW. Speaking of Clio: With almost 30 cars, the Cup class with the same name and organised by VLN partner Renault will again be the strongest class in the field at the seventh round of the season.

At the race for the cups supplied by the Bochum plant of Opel, the race cars with the Opel Blitz are of course particularly in the focus. The variety of Opel race cars ranges from the Opel Manta well advanced in years up to the dynamic Opel Astra OPC in the class of VLN Specials up to 2000 cc cylinder capacity with turbo engine. The crews in both cars include Opel Sports Director Volker Strycek (Dehrn/ Germany). He will share the cockpit of the Manta with Olaf Beckmann (Oststeinbek/ Germany) and Peter Hass (Hofheim/ Germany) and the one of the Astra entered by Kissling-Motorsport with Hannu Luostarinen and Julius Nieminen, both from Finland.

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Refuel less, drive longer: That’s the recipe for success of the further developed 911 GT3 R Hybrid: At the wheel of the Version 2.0 race car, Porsche works drivers Richard Lietz (Austria), Marco Holzer (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) clinched the first victory for the innovative race car from Weissach at round four of the Nürburgring Long Distance Championship. While almost all other direct opponents had to pit three times to refuel, the Hybrid-911 made only two stops and with this yielded the first victory for a Hybrid-Porsche. Well known for its efficiency, Manthey Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Porsche factory drivers Marc Lieb (Germany), Romain Dumas (France) as well as Manthey pilot Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) also managed with two pit stops and made Porsche’s double victory perfect.

The second race outing of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid in the 2011 Long Distance Championship marked the successful conclusion to intensive preparations for the Nürburgring 24 hour race on 25/26 June. “We’re very pleased with the technical level of the vehicle and the reliability of the hybrid system,” says Hartmut Kristen, Head of Motorsport at Porsche. “Compared to our rivals, we saved one pit stop and with less external energy input our lap times were just as quick. This is what we mean by Porsche Intelligent Performance. I’m particularly thrilled that Manthey Racing’s 911 GT3 RSR also underlined the famed efficiency of the Porsche 911 models and clinched second place.”

Priority in the further development of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid was clearly on increasing efficiency. For this, the weight of the vehicle, including the hybrid components, was reduced from 1,350 to 1,300 kilograms. The weight of the hybrid components was reduced by 20 percent through targeted optimization. The general hybrid layout was adopted from the 2010 model.

The output of both electric motors in the portal axle increased from 60 to 75 kilowatts each. For seconds at a time, pilots now have about 200 hp more at their disposal, which equals ca. 23 kW (32 hp) of additional conventional power per Nordschleife lap. Depending on the programming, this electrical power is automatically activated through use of the throttle pedal. Moreover, hybrid pilots can manually call up this extra power, for instance when overtaking. With the portal axle driving the front wheels, the four-litre, now 465 hp six-cylinder boxer engine, which drives the rear axle, was reduced in power and optimized with respect to fuel consumption.

“Our Hybrid-911 ran like clockwork,” says Marco Holzer. “Aside from the reliable technology and low fuel consumption, the key to success today was that we all drive at similarly high speeds and we didn’t make any mistakes,” adds teammate Richard Lietz.

The yellow and green Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR also drove a faultless race. Trailing by just seven seconds, Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Lucas Luhr claimed second place. “That race was almost perfect. Unfortunately our 911 GT3 R, which I shared with Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, was shunted rather roughly from the track by a competitor,” says double-starter Marc Lieb.

- Porsche Motorsport

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Opening round of the VLN series took place yesterday with a lot of focus on the SP9 class. However, deep in the field were two Volkswagen Scirocco GT24′s ready to punish the competition in SP3T. 16 cars would make up this class with only 5 finishing the 4 hour race.

Main competition came from Raeder Motorsports Audi TT RS as it ran consistent times with the GT24′s. The fastest lap came from the no301 Scirocco with an 8:51.063. The sister no302 had a fast lap of 8:54.749.

The blistering lap times and bulletproof reliability gave LMS Engineering a 1-2 in class and an outstanding 14th and 18th overall!

Due to tech difficulties the Audi TT RS would not finish as well as Raeder’s sister Audi TT S.

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In sunny spring weather last Saturday, seven Porsche 911 GT3 race cars entered by Manthey-Racing completed their laps at the Nordschleife for the first time in the year 2011.

The first common roll-out of the VLN teams revealed that the season 2011 will be a very special one, both for the fans and for the participants: A sensational mix of top drivers and more makes than ever are promising fascinating racing at the most beautiful race track of the world! Whilst Porsche will remain to be the strongest make and, with Manthey-Racing, has a top team in the fight about the race win, their competitors have not taken a rest during winter and did certainly catch up. The very competitive spearhead of Manthey Racing will certainly be challenged by not less than seven brand-new SLS AMG GT3, entered by four teams. Not to forget last year’s winning team of the 24h Race, Schnitzer Motorsport, who will compete at the Eifel circuit with two completely updated BMW M3 GT. For Olaf Manthey, the Phoenix-Audi R8 prepared at Meuspath, just around the corner of the Manthey team, must also be considered to be one of the favorite teams. “We are well prepared in the team of Manthey-Racing”, says the experienced strategist. “Everything else will remain to be seen in the next rounds.”

Lucas Luhr who has come back to the team will again be part of the “big” race car in the traditional yellow green design and with start number 11 as regular driver. Due to the close cooperation with Porsche Motorsport, the works drivers Marc Lieb, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas will this year again drive the GT3-R. The crew is completed by Arno Klasen. “The competition will definitely be much closer”, said Lieb at the press conference. “We intend to continue just where we have stopped in 2010”. The race driver from Ludwigshafen/ Germany regrets that according to current plans, he will compete in only three of the ten VLN races for Mantey. “I will however definitely participate in the two 6h races!”.

The opening round of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring will start this Saturday with the timed practice between 08:30hrs and 10:00hrs. The start of the 58th ADAC Westfalenfahrt over the distance of four hours on the 24.369 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring short connection and the Nordschleife will then be given at 12 o’clock exactly.

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