Over a month after their class win in the 24h race at the Nürburgring, the 5th round of the VLN Nürburgring endurance championship was on the agenda for Wolfgang Kaufmann and his team mates Dieter Schornstein and Florian Fricke.

“In the last lap of qualifying, and in typical Eifel weather, I put the perfectly prepared Kremer Porsche 997 GT3 KR in 16th position on the grid, and 3rd in the hotly contested SP7 class.”

The professional sportscar driver from the Westerwald again drove Kremer Racing’s Porsche 997 GT3 KR that had made it to the podium in all four previous races of the season. “Right from the start, I went into Piranha attack mode, and was already in 11th place overall, and the lead in SP7, at the end of lap 1. With the same strategy as in the previous four races, I headed for a refuelling stop as early as lap 4, and then went out for an additional full stint. Unfortunately, I picked up a slow puncture directly on my first lap, and thus had to cover half the lap at a slow pace.”

Kaufmann returned the car to the pits but had lost a significasnt samount of time, and dropped to 63rd place. From there, he made up a lot of ground over the following laps, and on lap 13 handed the car over to his team mate Dieter Schornstein in 17th position.

Schornstein, and as of lap 20 Florian Fricke, kept working away at their deficit to their class rivals ahead of them. However, they could not make up for the several minutes that had been lost earlier. At the finish, only 51 seconds separated them from another podium result; it was a thankless 4th place in class, 15th position overall.

“The boys at Porsche Kremer Racing have again done a first rate job. Regrettably, the tyre damage cost us another well-deserved podium finish.”

The next VLN race will follow on July 21. Concurrently, Wolfgang Kaufmann and Team Porsche Kremer Racing will be in action with their Ford Escort RS 1600 and Dieter Dörmann at the Spa-Francorchamps round of the Youngtimer Trophy.

Source : Wolfgang Kaufmann