Fastest Jaguar driver in Le Mans, but an early end at the Nürburgring. These last two weekends offered two assignments for Wolfgang Kaufmann that could not have been an more diverse. First of all, he travelled to Le Mans to the site of the world’s most important motor race, in front of a crowd of over 200.000 spectators, on a 13 kilometer track situated Southwest of Paris which contains a stretch of closed-off public road.
As support races for the twice-round-the-clock classic, the “Le Mans Legends” took to the track on Saturday morning – fascinating sportscars from the 1950s and 1960s, with Wolfgang Kaufmann right in the thick of the action driving Siamak Siassi’s #122 Jaguar E-Type Coupe. “It’s an amazing venue”, Kaufmann describes his impressions, “I have competed in the 24 Hours four times. The track is unique, and the number of spectators that were there even for our race is doubly motivating.” In addition to this, the man from Molsberg got to drive the 45 minute race solo this time, and push the throttle with gusto!
The professional racer was aware that he would not stand much of a chance against the numerous big-bore Ford GT40 and Shelby Cobras he competed against: “There are too many long straights here where they can make use of their torque and power, and just drive off into the distance.” After all, the Jaguar’s engine produces “only” 300bhp from a capacity of 3.8 liters. The team’s goal was to be fastest of the large field of Jaguars.
They almost achieved their goal in qualifying; only a race-bred E-Type with 200 kilos less, more power, and British touring car ace Steve Soper at the wheel was touch faster than Kaufmann. This only motivated him more for the start of the race on Saturday morning. It was the hour of the “Piranha”: in spite of his power deficit, Kaufmann worked his way up the order position by position, and also got by Soper’s Jaguar. It took a Safety Car period two laps before the end to halt Kaufmann’s progress, but the “Fighter” had made up a whole number of places. At the finish, he was up in 9th position overall which translated into 4th position in his class, behind three Shelby Cobras. Which, more importantly, also meant that he had reached his goal, and was the best Jaguar driver in the field!
It was an added confidence boost for Kaufmann as he travelled to the VLN on the following weekend where he would compete with Porsche Kremer Racing. The Porsche 997 KR had been put in the SP-Pro class which was a slight technical disadvantage compared to similar 997s which got to race in the SP7 class, and therefore without the air restrictor which meant less power from the flat-six engine in the 997 KR.
Qualifying brought the team no luck; as the rain moved in, the car was only able to take to the track when the Nordschleife was already wet. 17th position on the grid did not reflect the car’s true potential. Kaufmann took the start but was unable to make up places as he had planned. Ignition issues toward the end of his stint were the first taste of the trouble that lay ahead. At the scheduled pit stop, the team also diagnosed an oil leak in the transmission and decided to change the gearbox. However, the were unable to remedy the persistent problem of the engine cutting out which meant that a further two laps on, Mike Rönnefarth had to abandon the race while in the lead of the class – hence no result at the Nürburgring!
At the fourth round of the VLN endurance series on the Nürburgring, Kaufmann will once again share the victorious Group H Porsche 996 with Ralf Weiner; from there, he will move on to the Classic Endurance Series in Monza, Italy.