By Johan Laubscher
The penultimate round of the 2014 VLN Endurance Series took place at the Nürburgring on Saturday. A total of fourteen Audi race cars were entered this weekend.
Four Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were fielded by three different teams. The headline news was Audi race experience, run by TKL Motorsport, who entered two star driver line-ups. The first car was #22 with Audi drivers: Markus Winkelhock, Marco Werner and Christopher Haase. The second car was #11 which had an all-Chinese driver crew, including: Franky Cheng, Shaun Thong and Marchy Lee.
Phoenix Racing performed very well this weekend and Frank Stippler claimed pole position with the #5 Audi R8 LMS ultra, setting a blistering time of 7:57.474. The team also displayed fighting spirit during the race and recovered from a puncture and claimed a very well deserved third place overall with Marc Basseng and Frank Stippler.
Audi race experience finished second overall with their #22 Audi R8 LMS ultra, wherein Marco Werner was celebrating his thirtieth anniversary in motorsport, whilst the sister #11 car finished eighteenth overall.
Twin Busch Motorsport finished fourth with their #44 Audi R8 LMS ultra, thus ensuring that Audis filled positions two through four.
The SP3T class saw an Audi 1-2 for LMS Engineering, with their #303 Audi TT RS winning the class, ahead of their teammates in the #302 TT RS.
Møller Bil Motorsport unfortunately suffered a crash during practice on Friday. Atle Gulbrandsen was behind the wheel of the team’s #334 Audi TT RS when the rear brakes locked into Aremberg. The car was not repairable in time for the race, but most fortunately Gulbrandsen was unharmed.
The finale of the VLN season will be taking place at the Nürburgring on 25 October.
Photo credit: Audi Communications - Motorsport
