VLN2_2007

Nürburg/Heiligenroth, 28^th April 2007

Successful 2^nd Place - Setup for
24-Hours-Race is working at best
>>Pictures from 3. Run<< >>Video from 3. Run<<

26° Celsius, bright sunshine and round about 45.000 fans at the Nurburgring-Nordschleife: that was the third heat of the BFGoodrich-Long-Distance-Touring-Car-Championship 2007. “It was just a great weekend”, Andre Ibron said not only because of the external circumstances. The DEGUSSA BMW 135 DBD went perfect. Due to the high temperatures the team reduced the power of the BMW significantly. “Because of the exceeding Yokohama-tires with enormous grip we were largely able to compensate the power cutback of the engine”, stated Andre Ibron. Lap-times of about 9 minutes 50 seconds were easily achieved. Beneficial side-effect: the team was able to test the dataset – allocated by Wetterauer - for the 24-Hours-Race 2007 for the first time. There too the power is reduced to increase endurance.

The Qualifying was easily done. Bugs Bunny (Guido Wirtz) entered the BMW after the warm–up of the head of the team Andre Ibron and scored a time of 9:46.406 – position 2. He was 15 seconds slower than the Pohlen-VW Bora R-TDI but also 7 seconds faster than the Fuchsoil BMW 330 D on position three. Thus no reason to drive another rapid lap. “When Bugs has done his training-lap, I don’t have to drive on after the warm-up”, Andre Ibron grinned. Also Franz Groß confined himself to his duty during the Qualifying – later on was time to show off.

Bugs Bunny also took the first stint. He really accelerated and his second lap was the race’s fastest with 9:48.570. Only the Pohlen-Bora was able to beat this time. Head of the team Andre Ibron ordered via radio communication to spare the car a little. “With our dataset we weren’t able to catch up with the Bora anyway”, Andre Ibron said afterwards. So they focused on outpacing the competitors. Almost comfortably the team was able to keep the Dieselspeed Castrol BMW 335d GTR - at that time on rank three - with times of 9 minutes and 50 seconds at bay. For comparison: the personal fastest lap of the in the end third positioned DEVK Dieselspeed-BMW was 10:05.879. Thus no reason to worry. Though Bugs Bunny’s racer’s passion was longing a little: ”I would have loved to push on, but it was more important to maintain our position throughout the race.”

With a healthy margin to position three Franz Groß assumed control over the car. Meanwhile the team was so far ahead, that they were able to keep position two during the pit stop. Three laps later was the race’s moment of shock. Franz Groß reported via radio communication: ”There was a power drop, I think one turbocharger goes bust.” Immediately busy ado arose at the pit. Andre Ibron got ready to take over the car for failure analysis. The whole team was waiting for the DEGUSSA BMW. However, half a lap later the situation eased off already. “Everything works well. I’m driving on”, the radio crackled. Afterwards it turned out that the control unit had throttled the engine output. In the slipstream the engine temperature had reached the critical value.

So the head of the team could relax a little for the next six laps. As scheduled he took the last stint from lap 17. Again the pit stop flowed smoothly and Andre Ibron just had to ride the race out. The 135 DBD arrived at the Parc Fermé safely and without any problems. There Andre Ibron and his team jubilantly celebrated rank two: “We had a great weekend and again everything worked out perfectly. Both the team and the drivers made this unproblematic second place possible by the excellent team play and the compliance with the tactics.”

Also Mathias Ulbricht, leader of the team “Racing Event Motorsport”, was pleased: “As usual there was a good mood in the team. I’m very satisfied with the pit stop, they all did a great job.” A special commendation he gave to head of the time measurement Daniela Weidenfeller: “With her super organisation she made a permanent survey over the class possible, so we could establish the right tactics.”