Kuntz and Moll Win Nürburgring Thriller

Stefan Kuntz and Aureilen Moll took their first Overall Victory of the year at the Nürburgring, leading home a Racing Team Solvalou 1-2.

Stefan Kuntz lead at the start and would remain there until the rain started to fall 20 minutes into the race. When everyone pitted, the Solvalou pit-crew had a slow pit stop for the 02 which left Aureilen Moll to fight through the top five. Their teammates in Antonio Fazio and Enrico Molinaro showed the most confidence on track and would climb into the leading group part-way through the wet stint after starting on the ninth row of the grid.

The lead group would be comprised of six cars including both Solvalou Lamborghinis, the Pre-Qualfying Race Winner in the 41 Best In The World Lamborghini, the defending world drivers champions in the leading Union Saver Corvette, the lead Gerald Pereria Lister, and the Frank Zimmer/Mike Stern Pagani Zonda.  The group would battle it out blow for blow for the podium positions for more than a hour before the first one would blink. The one that would blink would be Mike Stern who spun at Coca-Cola Kurve and collected the Fabian Rei-driven Lister. The Rosenforth Zonda would attempt to limp back to the pits but would get run over by Heizo Takekawa while Stern was trying to stay out of the way of the faster cars.  The Minarae Ferrari would get a 15 second penalty for the avoidable collision and would finish eleventh. The spinning Zonda then collected the 28 Scuderia Vittore Ferrari who would suffer a ruptured radiator in the accident and would retire in the pit lane.

With ten minutes remaining, the leading Independent runner in the 41 Best In The World Lamborghini suffered a suspension failure at Coca-Cola Kurve and crashed into the outside tire barriers, retiring from second place and giving the position to the 03 Solvalou Lamborghini. The lead in the Independent Class would be inherited by their teammate in the 11 Lamborghini, who found themselves a quiet race among the chaos happening around them and would take the Independent Class Victory, and one bonus point for finishing fifth overall.

With how early the final round of pit stops came with the rain stopping, the question arose if anyone would need to pit for a splash and dash. No one would end up pitting but the 1 Union Saver Corvette and two other cars, the Belgio and Aeroracing Ferraris, would run out of gas on track right after they took the final lap and wouldn’t take the finish. The first car to run out would be the Factory Corvette and would finish twenty-second, classified one lap down, after the other two cars that would run out out of gas did so farther down the track.

With the damage to the 19 Factory Lister after the collision with the Zimmer and Stern Pagani, it became a two-horse race which would be won by the 02 Solvalou Lamborghini. Finishing fourth would be the other Gerald Pereria Lister completing a RTS 1-2 and GP 3-4.

The other cars finishing in the points would be the lead JLD Saleen, the part-time Globex Lister recovering after a spin at the Castrol-S during the wet stint of the race, the second Kjellerup Saleen, the Pirtek Pulsar Corvette, and the second Union Saver Corvette taking the final point by two tenths of a second over the penalized Minarae Ferrari.

Race Results – After 61 Laps

Fastest Lap – Car 62 (Rosenforth Zonda – Zimmer/Stern) – 1:51.697

Infinite Improbability Drive of the Race – Racing Team Solvalou: It took far too long for everything to come together, but boy did it come together in a big way.

Reject of the Race – Heizo Takekawa: The limping Zonda gave way, and this is how you thank them?!