VLN: Last successes at the end of the season

Like the race two weeks earlier, the final round of the 2019 Nürburgring Endurance Championship (VLN) took place in beautiful autumn weather. This time, only one Swiss driver was able to set the scene as a class winner, but others took podium places.

Consolation for Nikolaj Rogivue
With the Ferrari 458 from B racing one and the Germans Christian Kohlhaas and Stephan Kähler as partners, Nikolaj Rogivue came to victory in the SP8 class for VLN Specials over four liters as on October 12. At that time, the Zurich native of Swedish origin also turned the fastest Nordschleife lap to date for this sports car in 8'19. For Rogivue, this and the two wins in a row are a consolation for the disappointing season with the not really competitive Audi R8 from Mücke Motorsport in the ADAC GT Masters.

Failure of the TCR champions
After five victories in eight races, mathilda racing had to park its Cupra TCR two laps before the end of the four hours of racing with a technical defect (loss of gearbox oil). In addition to Frédéric Yerly and Matthias Wasel, Mathias Schläppi from Bern was used as the third driver for the first time.

Wasel and Yerly had already been confirmed as the winners of the VLN class winners' trophy for the TCR touring cars. In the final ranking of 841 names in the 2019 VLN Championship, the man from Fribourg is the best-ranked of all the Swiss in 60th place.

Jasmin Preisig just short of TCR class win
However, on the best grid position in the TCR class - for the seventh time in the VLN season that has come to an end - was the VW Golf GTI TCR of Max Kruse Racing qualified by Andy Gülden. The German Nordschleife specialist took turns alone with Jasmin Preisig this time. She was thus allowed to have justified hopes of her first TCR class win.

Initially, Gülden converted pole position into the lead, but neither he nor the Swiss driver after him could match the speed of the significantly faster Audi RS3 LMS of a Norwegian team on the long straight. Gülden took the wheel again for the final laps, whereupon he completely closed the gap with extremely fast lap times. Despite slipstreaming on the Döttinger Höhe, however, Gülden had no chance to launch a final attack due to his opponent's top speed advantage and crossed the finish line just 0.9 seconds behind.

Inverted world
In the eight-car SP3T class for two-liter turbo cars, which do not fully comply with TCR regulations, Roger Vögeli in a German team finished second in an Audi RS3 LMS. Here, Carrie Schreiner and Célia Martin, an all-female duo, won in the VW Golf GTI TCR entered by Giti Tires by WS Racing.

Up to and including the Nürburgring 24 Hours, Jasmin Preisig was also a fast team member before the Volkswagen Switzerland brand ambassador switched to the factory-supported VW team of German professional footballer Max Kruse and works driver Benny Leuchter.

End of season on the podium
Ivan Jacoma, driving a Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 Clubsport, also finished the 2019 VLN season with a second-place finish in a strongly contested class (Cup 3). The Ticino native occupies ninth place overall in the Trophy, which is specially entered for these cars. Jacoma celebrated a victory in this highly competitive class at the fifth VLN race in the summer,

In the SP8T class, which is dominated by GT4 cars, Manuel Amweg and his partners took third place in a BMW M4. With this result and the victory in the previous race, Yerlys Schwager moved up to third place in the annual standings for this class.

Philipp Hagnauer in a standard Porsche Cayman S in the V6 class and the German-Swiss team Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport with its BMW M4 GT4 in the SP10 class also finished third.

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