Dörr Motorsport had an eventful first race of the 2012 VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring season. Both McLarens MP4-12C GT3 retired early, only the BMW M3 GT4 saw the chequered flag.
The 59th ADAC Westfalenfahrt marked the start of the 36th VLN Endurance Championship season. The Dörr Motorsport team mainly focused on gaining experiences with the two new McLarens MP4-12C GT3.
Therefore, the team from Frankfurt took no chances on the partially wet track and placed both English super sports cars in the start positions 15 and 26.
Both McLarens Retire Early
The team did not take any chances in the qualifying sessions and therefore was forced to give up early in the race. Driving the McLaren #24 first, Chris Goodwin was kicked out by a competitor in the first lap in the Wehrseifen area of the Nordschleife. Two laps after that, Rudi Adams in the sister car shared a similar fate in the Adenauer Forst section when the orange racing car was involved in a collision of two other cars.
Kai Riemer was only able to drive during the qualifying. Despite his bad luck, the first racing weekend had some positive results. “We realised during the test and tuning sessions that the car has a good foundation. And after the few laps on the wet track this morning I am convinced that we are on the right track”.
Ebertz/Kenntemich/Nicolaides Saw the Chequered Flag in the BMW M3
Uwe Ebertz, Stefan Kenntemich and Siegbert Nicolaides drove across the finish line in sixth place in their class (SP10). Starting the 4-hour race from the fifth place, Ebertz handed the BMW M 3 GT4 over to Nicolaides after a little more than an hour. When it started to rain at the end of the first race of the season, Kenntemich stayed on track until the red flag was shown, aborting the 59th ADAC Westfalenfahrt about an hour before the end due to fog.
Afterwards Team manager Uwe Isert said: “It is great that the BMW saw the finish line. Unfortunately, we made the wrong choice with our tyres when it started to rain and we lost a few places. Maybe we would have won a place on the podium otherwise”.
ADAC Rookie Team Does Not Finish the Race Either
The young talents of the ADAC Hessen-Thüringen also expected a different result for their first race of the season. Maximilian Schwarz, Felix Körbel and André Kursim were thwarted by the technology in the test and tuning sessions. And now a broken alternator caused an early retirement in the fourth lap.
Team principal Rainer Dörr painted a rather bleak picture at the end of the first day of races. “Today it would have been important to gain more experiences with the two new cars. Some results in race conditions would have been necessary. Even worse, both cars were forced to retire early more or less through no fault of our own”.
Source : Dörr Motorsport