VLN Honda Nurburgring report

Great victory at 24h Nürburgring

The VLN Honda Junior Team attended by students of the University of Applied Sciences Cologne wins its class

Nürburgring / Cologne, Germany. The drivers of the VLN Honda Junior Team Christoph Breuer (Nettersheim), Benjamin Koske (Büttelborn) and Demian Schaffert (Aachen) won its class SPCup1 at the 34th ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24h-Race with a lead of 6 rounds. Finishing on position 33 of 220 racing cars the Team from Cologne, Germany was able to beat many more powerful cars.

The joy of the students from Cologne seemed to be never ending on Sunday 3 p.m. The team and the three young drivers had highly concentrated fulfilled lap by lap and pit stop by pit by pit stop over 24 hours.

They started on Saturday from 3rd position in their class and 103rd of all competing cars and it was a close race during the first hours as all Honda Civic of the class SPCup1 were to be found within few minutes. Commencing with a retaining style the drivers avoided clashes with other cars successfully and prevented the car from any damage that could have been caused by high wear.

The Honda Civic Type R found itself running on 5th place of the class while dusk over the legendary race course gave notice of the upcoming night. In that night the foundation for victory was laid. The Civic completed round by round as reliable as its first. One rival after the other was overtaken on the basis of constant lap times around 11 minutes. The competitors increasingly had problems with the long distance and could not oppose anything against the permanence of the Junior Team.

After 12 hours the Civic was leading in its class and that position was hold by the young team until the end of the race. Well practiced pit stops, the skills and the discipline of the drivers made the lead to grow up to astonishing 6 laps, which is equal to one hour.

In the end it was Christoph Breuer, who had the honour to drive the last turn and to pilot the car over the finishing line, while mechanics and 200.000 spectators applauded all drivers that completed the 24 hours. The trained motorcar mechanic from Nettersheim had spent several hours together with the students of the University of Applied Sciences Cologne working on the preparation of the racing car in the last weeks. "Despite a temperature of approximately 60 °C in the cockpit of the car, it gave me the creeps when I crossed the finishing line. I will never forget that moment", Christoph Breuer said.

Karl Heinz Gürthler, promoter of the long distance race series at the Nürburgring ("VLN BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring"), who initiated the Junior Team last November was visibly moved: "I had tears in my eyes. It is just great what the Junior Team has achieved in that short time."

The students had prepared themselves for their tasks as mechanics and race engineers during the 24h race for several weeks. Taking part in that race was a highlight in the history of that young motorsports club "FH Köln Motorsport e.V." from Cologne, not just because of the fact that the result counts twice in the Honda Civic Cup, but in the special atmosphere that surrounded the race track during the event.

„They have done a really good job.", cheers Nicolas Raeder, CEO of Raeder Motorsports (Mönchengladbach), former student of the University of Applied Sciences Cologne, Mentor and "Know-how Partner" of the club. Lars Gutsche, master of the award ceremonies got it to the point: "The victory is a small sensation. When the team was presented in March many wondered if a team from a university could prevail in just one of the toughest classes of the long distance series at the Nürburgring. Today the Team has proved earlier than expected what they are capable of."

-www.koelnmotorsport.de