2nd in the SP9 and 3rd in the SP7 after a exciting race
30.07.2011
With a 2nd place overall, a 11th place overall and thus a 3rd place in the SP7 there were also the launch of the new Frikadelli Racing website to celebrate.
Nearly four weeks had past since the 24h race and the last action for the team around Klaus Abbelen and Sabine Schmitz. The time of preparation was worth it, because the result at the end of this Saturday was impressive. The GT3 already showed his potential in the qualifying, in the meantime even ranked on the 5th place. At that time the track was very tricky, as the onset of drizzle allowed hardly fast lap times. After the training session #30 with Sabine Schmitz, Arno Klasen and Niclas Kentenich driving started from position 14 into the race, whilst Klaus Abbelen together with Florian Fricke and Julian Dercks in #53 started the race not far away from position 17.
Before the race started, there was a different fact already to celebrate: The new website of the race team from Barweiler, which went online also exactly 12 o´clock. Under www.frikadelli-racing.de the team is now available online for all fans.
The race started in time 12 o´clock under damp conditions, the start signal was also the beginning for a chase into the top positions. Both, the GT3 R driven of “Speedbee” Sabine Schmitz and the Cup driven from Florian Fricke, had an exiting first stint on the slow drying track. When Sabine pass the car on the 7th lap to Arno Klasen, she already managed to be on the first place overall – the well deserved reward for a strenuous hunt. But the luck was not with the Frikadelli team because already on the next lap the race got stopped by a red flag and had to get restarted after this interruption. Due the planned long pit stop in the previous lap they had to go back to the race from position 3. But also Arno Klasen showed in his first race in the fast Frikadelli Porsche his potential and managed to be back on position one already at the Mercedes Grandstand. With that theoretically it was all open again, even though the time difference of 12 seconds from the first stage of the race was still in space. Even he had to give the leadership back to the ROWE-SLS he built up his lead to the rest of the field continuously. But it shouldn´t work out this time either. Only 2 laps after a scheduled pit stop and Niclas Kentenich took the car over the race got finally stopped after a massive crash at “Bergwerk”. Which ment a 2nd place in the class SP9 and in the total race.
The second Porsche was also very successful. The GT3-Cup finished 11th overall and thus 3rd place in its class. So by the end of the day there was more than one reason to celebrate.
Text: Hendrik Kebben
Photos: Hendrik Kebben, Dominik Sternberg