42. ADAC Barbarossapreis – VLN Race

25.9.2010

Nürburgring – Google Maps

34. DMV 250-Meilen-Rennen – VLN Race

16.10.2010

Nürburgring – Google Maps

35. DMV Münsterlandpokal – VLN Race

30.10.2010

Nürburgring – Google Maps

Hi everybody,

summer is over and as well the time where we had to wait more then 5 weeks for the next race.

The last months past by so quick, My sister got married in Belgrade ( My got what a party. Never tried homemade Slivovitza before but I have to say not too bad, no headaches. We were celebrating for 3 days in a row and it was one of the best weddings I’ve ever been 😉 .  If you are single, think about spending a weekend there. You wont regret it. The Parties you can have there are amazing.

Although I was quiet busy, I really missed the Nürburgring/ Nordschleife.

On friday I did some taxi drives and my Osteopath from Hamburg was able to get a lap with me. He is working as well for the Wolfsburg and Schalke 04 footballteam. He couldn’t get the smiling out of his face even hours later ;-). Amazing talent this guy and if you need a serious Osteopath or Physio, drop me a line!

…this race I was lucky to drive on two cars. The Wochenspiegel #116 and my regular one #117

I qualified the #116 with 8:13min on Pole. The Lap was great, I had only one yellow where I had to lift but otherwise hardly no traffic or at least no traffic that slows you down on some parts of the track.

To be able to drive on both cars I needed to start on the #116 and than finish with my #117

Start was good and I was able to lead by nearly 20 sec. after 8 Laps. I was also able to set the fastest Laptime in the race with 8:17min.

For me, the raceday started nearly perfect.

Unfortunately the #116 retired a bit later and again the Wochenspiegel car didn’t finish. These guys are not very lucky this year and its a shame because the car is so nice to drive even with less downforce then  the #117. ( but faster on the straight, thats why I could drive the fastest Laptime)

I didn’t have a lot time to relax. Only a view laps later Romain Dumas came in and I had to jump in for the last 9+3 laps.

We were on 4th position when I took over and my job from Olaf Manthey was to attack and try to gain as much as positions as possible.

So I did.

I closed the gap of approx. 15sec to the Audi with Marc Basseng on the wheel. I told Olaf that I am now behind the Audi but its not easy to pass because they are faster on the straights. We had 5 more laps to go and we needed to come in anyhow for fuel for 3 more Laps. So Olaf told me to come in at the end of this lap, if Basseng stays out. He did so I pushed coming in the Pitlane, late braking for the 60km/h pitspeed and hoped for a quick splash and dash! It was perfect and our strategy worked out. Now back on the track I pushed like crazy with no Audi in front of me. We knew he has to come in as well for the 3 Laps of fuel, so now was our chance to take the 2nd position from the Audi.

When I was driving down the Döttinger Höhe Olaf told me Basseng comes for his Pit Stop. Now I was nervous if my laptimes where fast enough to pass him before he comes again out on the track…………Done!, I was in front with a lead of a view seconds and 3 Laps to go.

He could gain back some time but was never close enough to pass me.

Now in the last lap , there was one more yellow and I guess he could close the gap a bit more but still nothing to worry about.

When I came out of Galgenkopf I could see that my advantage is enough to keep the 2nd place.

He never had a chance to attack me but I saw he is coming closer because of the higher topspeed of the Audi. Once you are passing the Tiergarten there is no way to overtake anymore, except he would have been already next to me. But that was not the case.

WHAT HAPPENED THAN:

While I was already driving the downhill left, this lunatic tried to overtake me on the inside. There was never ever a chance to pass me but I guess he has an ego problem, tried to proof everybody what kind of good driver he is and massed it up completely.

There was NO ROOM for him next to me, he touched me at the back left at approx. 275 km/h!!!

My car was immediately oversteering, I drove into the left grass before the compression still struggling to catch the car. My first thought was, if I loose the car or start to roll at that speed, I am dead….. Next thing was that I jumped over the track onto the right grass still not sure if I am able to control the car. By luck, I came back to the track before Hohenrain, the last left, right, left before the start and finish line.

Even after I came back on the track in one piece, he still pushed and tried to pass me!!! He didn’t understand what just happened or how this could have ended…..

In 17 years of racing all kinds of cars and tracks, I was never that scared….

Maybe now some will understand why I was out of control in the Parc ferme and behaved the way I did. Other racing people told me, they would not have been as controlled as I was with Basseng than!

Even if there was a chance, what wasn’t the case, you never try to overtake there. Thats the same for the Fuchsröhre or Schwedenkreuz and other spots on the Nordschleife. You have to be side by side BEFORE the Tiergarten Brücke, otherwise you lost the battle and have to stick back or try later.

These places are too dangerous for passing and it could end up in massive shunts, injuries or even worth.Most of you maybe remember the deadly accidents in Schwedenkreuz and  Tiergarten (Ulli Richter) a view year ago.

What Marc Basseng has done there is unacceptable, irresponsible  and he was risking his and my life.

I haven’t talked to anyone who is not agreeing…

This, I never want to experience again and I don’t wish that somebody will be in such a situation ever…..

Now I am looking forward to the next VLN race on the 17th.

The  Nordschleife is magic and has always been good to me.. 😉

see you guys,

Marcel

Interview with vln-fanpage.de (german) after the race.

Hi,

sorry that I get back to you that late but I was traveling all the time. After the last race I stayed in Germany/ Hamburg for some business and private stuff. As well, yesterday I was at the Manthey Trackday.

But lets talk about to the 4th race of the VLN.

We really struggled in Qualifying. The car was exactly the same as in the 24h but Michelin gave us different set of tires, that didn’t work out that well. To explain it shortly: In the front we had a lot of grip and in the back it was extremely loose.

…massive oversteer at turn in.

That also explains, why we only started from 5th position.

For the race we found a set of tires that worked well for us last year. So we decided to start on that. I was sure it couldn’t be worth than what we had for the qualifying.

I had a good start and went directly to 4th position before the first corner. We were all very close together and were fighting hard for our positions. When we came to the Breidscheid Brige I could attack Chris Mamerow. I braked really late for the left and passed him. Same happened with Dirk Adorf. When we came to the Brünnchen I knew I have to take the chance again on the brakes and it worked out well again. You probably can imagine how good it felt to finally be again the starting driver and making my way thru from 5th to 2nd position!

With Mark Basseng it was no different. I already knew that my car was strong on the brakes and at turn in. So coming to the NordschleifeI could take some more speed for the slow left corner  and outbreak Mark.

From there on I had a clean Lap and until the end of my stint I was leading by around 20 sec.

That felt good 😉 .

When Arno took over, after a view laps the race was red flagged. By than we were in second position. It was Arno’s first race since lat year and I think he did a very good job also considering that we had the problem on Friday and in Qualifying.

Now it was again up to me to trying to gain back first and finish the race.

The restart was ok but I had no chance to pass the Ford with Thomas Mutsch on the wheel. He was extremely strong and I think we could really see the full potential of the Ford GT. I could only follow for one lap but than my laptimes dropped and I was lost lap by lap some time. We knew that their third driver Hermann Tilke still needed to drive and will probably jump into the car for the last 3 or 4 laps.

So I was continuing pushing to be on the safe side and by the time we had a our splash and dash for the last 3 laps we got back first position.

As you can see on the picture below, it was not an easy one….

but

it was a fantastic race for me starting twice and being able to make my way thru first in 2 laps. Especially with all the strong cars and drivers now.

I know the next race is only 4 days away and I will do my best to give you my view of the race  earlier than this time. 😉

Marcel

As promised earlier I will give you my view of the race. I know it took some while, but I really wanted to get some time off and just enjoy what happened 😉 .

The tension  from the months before this race was extremely high. With all questions about the new rules and therefore the “Balance of performance” and of course if we are able to win again.

The weekend started already Thursday with the free practice and first Qualifying. In free practice I was not able to drive a lap as planned because were running out of time. In first qualifying the conditions were not very good because of the rain/ no rain.

It was my turn to go for the 2 laps that every driver needs to complete to get qualified  for the race. When Marc came in, I stayed on rain tyres but unfortunately it was already too dry and my rain tyres started to get too hot and therefore I had an uncontrollable rear end. For my second lap I changed for slick and typical Nordschleife, it started to rain! So that was it for me because on the next day we decided Marc is just going for 2 more qualifying laps. P2.

After the qualifying I was confident that we could keep the same speed as the Audis and I felt a bit more relaxed because we really didn’t know if this was the case.

Marc was the start driver and did a fantastic job. I was co-comentating the start on DSF and I was so excitited, that it was hard to sit still 😉 . For me it was another 4 hours before I got into the car and of course after Audi was taking P1 and drove lap times that we never expected we were all a bit nervous if we are able to keep the speed and follow them!

When I was going into the car, I was loaded with adrenalin and curious how my stint would be without much driving time the days before. As well, you shouldn’t forget that all Porsche works driver already drove in the 24h Daytona, 12h Sebring and many more endurance races than me this year. For me, it was this year my 4th race and maybe you can imagine the pressure I had 😉 . Luckywise I am good under pressure but of course you never know and you get usually a bit nervous before.

But my first stint showed, that there was no reason to be nervous. I was really quick and straight up to speed. I could close the gap to Audi and felt even more motivated to beat Audi and of course all the others.

For us drivers there was only one way to go and that was driving at the absolute limit of the car every single lap, no matter what!!!

About my second stint, there is not much to say. It was during the night and there was the very long yellow on the GP Track.

You could read in my Post before about the 3 min I got for not respecting the yellow. This was not the case and I was certain, that I did absolutely nothing wrong. Because of the new rules we are obliged to have a data-recorder in the car that can be only read by the officials. I was pushing Olaf , that somebody should go to the officials and show them our data and if they agree they could as well check their own. Thats what they did to verify. I was very happy that they looked at it again with the result getting our 3 min back. I have to say that this is definitely a good part of the new rules. The marshals are doing a fantastic job and I don’t blame them for anything but sometimes it is not easy for them to really see what happens and of course it is not easy to see if a car is driving under 50km/h or over for example. They always try to be as fair as possible and to see the situations right. At this point I would also thank them for what they are doing. Without all this volunteers around the track they wouldn’t be a race!

The morning has come and it was again my turn to get in the car. We gained back time step by step but we also knew, that we have to keep on pushing.

I think that this 8 laps were some of my most exciting ones on the Nordschleife. For me the “morning stints” are the bests. I love to see the sun go up, a bit less traffic, fresh air, the fans start to wake up and you are sitting in the car and just focused on driving. It felt so good that you are in a kind of own world where its just you the track and the car.

In this “state of balance” I drove the fastest Lap of the race and the whole stint was just superquick. When  Marc went in the car he even mentioned it to me while I was closing his seatbelt and I told him just push you can do it as well. And that’s what he did just a tiny bit slower than his fastest 😉 .

After this I really needed to take quick shower and a nap. When I woke up and I watched the screen, I hardly couldn’t imagine what I saw: Our car was on P1 and the Phoenix Audi dropped back. I didn’t know what happened then but I felt how a bit of the pressure was gone. The next thing in my mind was then hopefully we don’t get a problem as well after pushing that hard or hopefully we don’t get a puncture. You get one thing out of your mind and suddenly other becoming more important.

The other Audi was approx. 5 min behind us so we couldn’t completely let go and kept the speed high but not as fast as before.

My last stint was difficult from the concentration side. If you are not in need to push really hard and they tell you to drive around 9 min a lap, you have so much time to think. For example about the traffic when you pass or about the noises in the car everything is suddenly on your mind and you hope that things will just go fine…..

16.00, P1!!! I can not describe my feelings when we crossed the finish line. Everything is suddenly over and you try to realize what just happened: 4 times in a row and 5 times for me. Wow, its just amazing.

All the hard work from the Team and us drivers paid of at the end and there is not much that makes you more excited than that. Even for days afterwards you are living out of this and enjoying and realizing what happened.

All the days after I was still so “high” that I couldn’t wait to get back in the car and still now I am looking forward to next week for the next VLN race.

One thing you realize the night after the race: Pain! Every time you turn around in bed your back and butt is hurting and this for days 😉 .

I want like to thank all of you for your support and I hope that we can do it again!!!

… I mean why not? ;-))

Interview with vln-fanpage.de (german)

Interview with vln-fanpage.de (german)

Date: 31-10-2009

Distanz: 4 Stunden
Training: 08:30 Uhr
Start: 12:00 Uhr