Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus finishes on VLN podium

Italo-American bespoke sports car manufacturer Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus has ended the 2015 VLN Series in style by clinching a second place finish at the final round of the championship: the best result in the team’s history.

Conditions were the coldest they have been all year at the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany, with temperatures of just four degrees prior to the qualifying session this morning, which was delayed due to fog.

Once the session finally got going, the SCG003C secured its best qualifying position of the season, with local expert Thomas Mutsch setting a stunning time of 8m03.102s around the 25-kilometre circuit to line up second on the grid in ‘Macchinadue’.

‘Macchinauno’ – or ‘car one’, in English – lined up 10th on the grid thanks to a time set by Frenchman Franck Mailleux.

As usual, three drivers alternated stints in each car during the three-hour race, with Mutsch taking the start for ‘Macchinadue’ and immediately securing a top-three position, while Manuel Lauck set off in ‘Macchinauno’ to move steadily up the top 10.

The progress didn’t stop there. The second stint was completed by SCG’s newest recruits: experienced GT racers Jeroen Bleekemolen from Holland (in ‘Macchinauno’) and Christian Menzel from Germany (in ‘Macchinadue’): another Nordschleife expert who lives just minutes away from the famous Ring. Despite their unfamiliarity with the car, they both quickly found confidence in the challenging conditions to consolidate the excellent start that had been made by their team mates.

The all-important third and final stint was carried out by two of SCG’s most experienced drivers, with Mailleux bringing ‘Macchinauno’ home in second overall after a brilliant run, while American racer Jeff Westphal sealed ninth place in ‘Macchinadue’.

The race came to an end prematurely, when it was red flagged due to worsening weather conditions. Unfortunately, ‘Macchinadue’ lost out through this situation as it had made a pit stop shortly before the race was stopped – but this is just a normal part of racing.

Throughout practice, qualifying and the race, the SCG003C demonstrated exemplary pace and reliability, bringing Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus one step closer to its ambition of winning the famed Nurburgring 24 Hours.

Program Director Paolo Garella concluded: “It’s a fantastic result as well as another successful step in our testing and preparation programme for next year. We experienced true winter conditions over the weekend, but in spite of this we managed to extract the maximum performance from the car and tyres, thanks also to the right set-up for these conditions. The time we set in qualifying underlines the speed and potential of the car, which is the result of plenty of hard work since the program started last year, as well as a reflection of the abilities of our drivers. The result also showed that we can bring it home. Now we all sincerely believe that we can achieve even more in future. This is only the start of a fantastic story, and we look forward to getting out on track again soon.”


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