VLN5: With the view towards 2019
This year's ROWE 6 HOURS ADAC RUHR-POKAL-RACE we started with our Porsche Cayman in class V5. Our multicultural driver pairing consisted of Adenauer's veteran Michael Mönch, an old VLN hare with a wealth of experience on various vehicles and three Japanese guests whose goal was to reach the Nordschleife Permit-B this weekend and to collect the first race laps on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. This season, "Operation Permit A for 2019" should be completed. All goals have been achieved and we have even been rewarded with a successful 4th place in the class.
On Thursday afternoon, the race weekend for Matsuda Tsugio, Takaboshi Mitsunori and Fujii Tomonobu began with going to school during the permit course, which was carried out by the Driving Academy of the Nürburgring. The program were the different handling of the flags and the peculiarities of the green hell. A track walk on the Nürburgring Nordschleife rounded off the day.
Friday morning it was then to put the learned into practice and show driving skills. Our partner NexD-Racing has provided us with three perfectly prepared BMW 325i V4 for the permit students. This was a total of 16 laps completed on the VLN route variant, sometimes with and partially without instructor. In the end, all three were allowed to receive their certificate with praise from their instructor. The first goal was achieved, the Nordschleife permit level B was bagged.
Friday afternoon it got serious: the free practice should be driven with the Porsche Cayman. The Grand Prix circuit and the Nordschleife are driven in combination. Michael Mönch was the first to take a seat on the car. Most recently, he had piloted him in May at the 24hrs race. The three Nordschleife newbies got along well from the start. After 2 laps of each driver, the Cayman was handed back to the team to do a main check, with the result that the car was perfectly prepared for the following day.
In the morning qualifying Takaboshi Mitsunori set the fastest time with a 9:44min. For the race, this meant starting position 7 in class V5.
The strategy for the start was clear: 6 hours of racing are long and the experienced Michael Mönch decided to keep the Cayman out of all fights and deliver a bum-free starting phase (which of course he succeeded). After 6 race laps he was able to hand over the Porsche Cayman undamaged to his colleague Matsuda Tsugio. Thanks to the international motorsports experience, the German-Japanese driver quartet was able to constantly rip forward over the 6-hours race distance. After a total of 35 race laps, they placed the vehicle in fourth place of the class in the parc fermé and were able to fulfill the requirement of a placement within 75% of the class. Thus, another goal was achieved and the completed laps could be booked for the acquisition of the Nordschleife permit A.
It was the perfect weekend for the GTronix360 ° Team mcchip-dkr. The team and the drivers were in perfect harmony with each other and everyone was proud of the result. Our Renault R.S.01 is still for sale. At the same time, we are already setting the course for the next motorsport season. Exciting talks are on the plan!
