Impressive performance of both ROWE RACING gullwing cars in the third race of the VLN endurance racing championship at Nürburgring-Nordschleife
Bubenheim, 15 May 2011 – The new team of ROWE RACING finished the third VLN race with a class win in their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. The driver trio made up of Hubert Haupt, Klaus Rader (both from Munich) and Marco Schelp (Berlin) succeeded in moving up from position 14 on the starting grid to final overall position 4 which secured them the victory in the SP 9 class ahead of 14 other competitors. The sister car, driven by Alexander Roloff (Berlin), Thomas Jäger (München) and Roland Rehfeld (Blankenfelde), finished the eventful 6h-race within eyeshot of the finish line but without being classified.
For ROWE RACING, the team of the lubricant manufacturer based in Bubenheim/Pfalz , the race day started with a bang: at 8:14.961 minutes, Thomas Jäger set the fastest lap time in the SLS AMG GT3 in the morning qualifying session, a time which proved to be a tough nut no crack for the competition. Pole position for the trio Trio Roloff, Jäger, Rehfeld! After the start of the 6h-race, the ROWE gullwing race car with start number 15 was initially successful in defending its lead position. After almost 2 hours’s race time in the top group, the car was given a time penalty for a yellow flag infringement. Together with 9 other cars of the top group afflicted by the same predicament, Thomas Jäger & Co. had to start a hard attack to move up just as it started raining. He eventually made it up to seventh place when the car ran out of fuel and stopped just before the finish line so that it was not classified.
The second ROWE RACING SLS was luckier, as the team benefitted from the penalty inflicted onto the top ten and consequently moved up in the classification. As the race continued, the crew with the drivers Haupt, Rader, Schelp was always found between first and fourth place, depending on the pit stops. The final driver Hubert Haupt took the chequered flag in fourth position overall and the class win in the SP9 class. He also finished as the fastest Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. The overall victory was secured by the Ferrari of the Farnbacher team with the drivers Marco Seefried and Jamie Melo Jr.
Team manager Hans-Peter Naundorf: ”After the fantastic qualifying and the first pole position for ROWE RACING, we are overjoyed about the performance of our two cars and the SP9 class win.”
The next round of the VLN series will take place on 28 May 2011.
Further information and current photos:
ROWE MINERALÖLWERK GMBH
Public Relations
Anja Häbel
Phone.: +49 (0)6355 – 9541-30
Fax.: +49 (0)6355 – 9541-41
a.haebel(at)rowe-mineraloel.com
ROWE Press Service
c/o die agentour GmbH
Peter Linke
Phone: +49 (0)89 – 530 99 7-0
Fax: +49 (0)89 – 530 99 7-99
pl(at)die-agentour.de