Dörr Motorsport was not able to continue their upward trend of the previous races at the eighth round of the 2012 VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring. Only the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup saw the chequered flag. Dörr Motorsport from Frankfurt am Main entered three cars for the 44th ADAC Barbarossapreis, the eighth round of the 2012 VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring 2012. In addition to the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 and the BMW M 3 GT4 the team around team principal Rainer Dörr also used a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup for this race.

Early Retirement for the McLaren MP4-12C GT3

Kai Riemer was the first of the four McLaren drivers to start in the 90-minute qualifying session on the partly wet track. After Henri Moser had taken over the English super sports car, he tried his best to set the fastest lap. However, shortly before the end of the lap a technical failure stopped the Swiss in the Döttinger Höhe section, destroying several mounting parts in the rear as well as the radiator. Given the tight schedule, a participation in the race was impossible. “Kai (Riemer) spun in his lap at the Nordschleife and hit a barrier. We are not sure yet if there is a connection between that incident and the failure. It is just too bad that Henri was on his way to set a new fastest lap; the sector times would have resulted in us temporarily being in the lead in the qualifying session anyway”, said team manager Uwe Isert.

BMW M3 GT4 Crashes in the First Lap

Stefan Kenntemich, Stefan Müller and Tom Moran took the fourth start position in the SP10 class (GT4 cars), setting a lap time of 9:21.709. They grabbed P39 in the overall standings. However, the three drivers of the BMW M 3 did not succeed in the race. Having taken over the cockpit for the start, Stefan Müller had a light collision with a competitor in the first lap. As a result, the bonnet opened on a straight, obstructing Müller’s view of the track. He then crashed into the barriers. Consequently, the 44th ADAC Barbarossapreis was finished early for the drivers of the BMW M3.

Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Sees the Chequered Flag

Since the BMW Z4 M Coupé had retired early from the 6-Hour Race and was not ready again in time for the 44th ADAC Barbarossapreis, Dörr Motorsport entered a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup for the eighth race of the season, with Stefan Aust, Andreas Weishaupt and Dennis Trebing sharing the Weissacher sports car.
The three drivers took the sixth place in the class of the modified cars with a cylinder capacity of up to 4 litres (SP7), setting a lap time of 9:33.603 minutes in the qualifying session. This resulted in start position 53 in the overall standings. American driver Trebing took over the Cup Porsche for the start stint of the four-hour race and did not get involved in any incidents. However, shortly before the end of the first hour of the race, the trio faced gearbox issues and dropped more than 2 laps. Nevertheless, the three drivers found their rhythm again and drove the last remaining Dörr Motorsport car across the finish line after four hours. Aust/Weishaupt/Trebing secured P51 in the overall standings and took P7 in their class.

Team Principal Rainer Dörr remained positive after the race despite the disappointing weekend. “Unfortunately, we suffered a setback today. However, we still demonstrated in the three laps in the qualifying session that we are now close to the top with our McLaren MP4. We expect a chassis update from McLaren in time for the next race which will offer a higher spring rate. This should help us to improve further, especially here on the Nordschleife”.

Source : Dörr Motorsport