By Tarek Ramchani
Round 8 of the VLN Endurance Series at the Nürburgring was the 44. ADAC Barbarossapreis. A four hour event that gave Audi a brilliant 1-2 overall victory.
Raeder Motorsport made history by winning their first overall race with the Audi R8 LMS ultra in the Nordschleife based series. The #44 car shared by Audi legend Frank Biela along with Thomas Mutsch and Christian Hohenadel crossed the finish line victorious after a great and fought race. The car started from position 8 after the qualifying session and had a great three-way battle with the Phoenix Racing run #15 Audi R8 LMS ultra and a Porsche GT3 R from Manthey Racing. In the end the white and green Audi won it right ahead of the Bilstein backed Phoenix car. This was the team's second overall win with Audi in VLN, after the stunning victory last year with the Audi TT RS. The #15 Phoenix Audi had a great race as well, a strong second with team's regular drivers, Marc Basseng and Frank Stippler. A great performance after ninth place in qualifying. The sister Phoenix car, the #5 machine of Christer Jöns and Luca Ludwig, finished in a good sixth place after a titanic battle in the closing stages with an SLS GT3 AMG.
Overall it was a great weekend for the Audi squad at the Green Hell. A nice 1-2 win, proving once again that the Audi R8 LMS ultra is among the best in long endurance races. The next round is set for next month, the 36. DMV 250-Meilen-Rennen.
