Dörr Motorsport did not meet their expectations at the ROWE 250-Miles-Race. Only the Aston Martin Vantage of the team from Frankfurt, Germany drove across the finish line.
The ROWE 250-Miles-Race is the ninth and penultimate round of the 2012 VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring. The Dörr Motorsport team from Klassikstadt Frankfurt entered a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 as well as a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup and an Aston Martin Vantage.
Major Improvements at the McLaren
Henri Moser set an initial lap time of 8:22.604 min at the start of the qualifying session, even though the Swiss was not entirely happy with his stint because he could probably have done better if not for the multiple yellow flag phases.
Team Manager Uwe Isert sent Kai Riemer onto the track for two laps at the end of the qualifying session. Unfortunately, it was a short stint for Riemer. After only half a lap he heard noises indicating a problem with the drive chain. The crew in the pit detected a failure of the differential gear which resulted in an early retirement for the McLaren MP4-12C. Later on, Team Manager Uwe Isert said, “The sector times showed that Kai was very fast. I am sure that we could have finished among the top if everything had worked out and if we had not had the failure”.
There were quite a few modifications in order to optimise the McLaren’s chassis before the ninth round of the season. The car has got new dampers and has a longer spring deflection which is said to be extremely important at the Nordschleife. “All drivers were very excited about the modifications of the car. At the end of the day, it is too bad that we were not able to use our full potential due to the failure but we will get another chance in four weeks time”, said Isert.
Aston Martin Finishes the Race, Porsche Crashes in the Free Practice Session
Dörr Motorsport entered an Aston Martin V8 Vantage for this round due to the fact that the BMW M 3 GT4 was involved in a crash during the previous race. Stefan Kenntemich, Tom Moran and Reinhard Prenzel shared the English sports car in the GT4 class. Setting a lap time of 9:29.823min the three drivers secured start position 71 and took P5 in their class. Kenntemich/Moran/Prenzel finished the four-hour race fifth. They took P76 in the overall standings after losing five places.
The Porsche GT3 Cup, with Stefan Aust and Andreas Weishaupt at the wheel, had already crashed in the free practice session on Friday after a technical failure.
Team Principal Rainer Dörr made a clear statement afterwards. “The McLaren is capable of setting great lap times. We will have to put in a good performance at the final race in four weeks time in order to finish the season with a great result. We will try our best to improve the car at our test sessions in Portugal”.
Source : Dörr Motorsport