One Podium and one missed victory
The second round of the current VLN Long-distance Championship got underway Saturday at 12 o´clock in dry and sunny conditions. Following a turbulent night on Friday, in which the gearbox of Rent4Ring Racing´s Mazda MX-5 was fixed, both the Mazda and the BMW 125i showed a successful race.
After a spectacular race accident involving the Porsche #101 and the VW Scirocco #505, in which nobody was seriously injured, the race around the traditional Eifeltrack was stopped after four laps. The track and crash barrier in the area Pflanzengarten was damaged on about 80 metres and had to be put back in place for a re-start. At 14:30pm, the cars rolled out for their second starting grid of the day, forming the positions as per the fourth registered race lap. The re-start took place at 16.30pm with the Rent4Ring Racing cars running in good positions.
Class V3: Mazda MX-5 - Number 515 - Driver Anthony Toll and Dale Lomas
After a moment of shock in Friday´s free practice session and a resulting technical failure, it was not certain the Mazda MX-5 would be able to race.But after a great team effort, ´Vreni´ was delivered back well and fixed into the garages on Saturday morning. With an extraordinary qualifying effort with the second best time, luck was not on the side of the red Racing Mazda. At the beginning of the race, Anthony Toll occurred a driver mistake and he had small contact with the crash barrier in Brünnchen, which lead for him to park the Mazda on the side of the track. But the red flag and the re-start meant Dale Lomas was able to continue the race.
With Dale behind the wheel, the Mazda-Team was able to continuously push for the leading position. Towards the end of the race, they were running in second place when the impossible happened: On the last lap, Dale pushed hard and managed to take over the lead, running in first place, when the Englishman ran out of fuel. But despite not having taking home their second victory in the second race, it remains unquestionable, that the Mazda MX-5 is a competitive race car, always able to run for victory.
Anthony Toll, Germany:´After I started the race, I was not able to defend our second position. Iwanted to push a little more but then made a mistake in Brünnchen and lostcontrol over the car. Thankfully the car was not damaged badly, and we wereable to take part in the re-start. Dales race to catch up on the lead wasbrilliant and to give away the hard-fought win is not nice. But we haveshown again, that we have a victorious car.´
Class VT2: BMW 125i - Number 504 - Driver Fredy Lienhard, Ralph Beck andMaxim Taylor
Same as the Mazda MX-5, the BMW 125i qualified in second place in Class VT2. After a sensational start by Fredy, the young Swiss took the lead already in the first lap. But a few double-yellow-phases lead to two competitors running past Fredy on the straights. Maxim Taylor took behind the wheel at the re-start of the race around the Nordschleife, a track he has known for the past 20 years. Following a quick Splash-and-Dash Pitstop, in which the car was fueled for the remaining laps, Maxim crossed the finishing line in his first ever VLN Race in third position.
Maxim Taylor, England:´Since it was my very first VLN race I was quite nervous, but to crown thefirst race with a podium finish is really great. We had constant pace andafter the re-start we were able to hold on to third place with no bigdramas. The last laps were quite tough, but it was so much fun. I enjoyed myfirst VLN race very much with Rent4Ring Racing.´
Rent4Ring Racing congratulates all class winners of the first VLN Long-distance race.
