VLN: Manthey Racing's Pilet and Bergmeister win the longest race of the season

Manthey Racing’s Patrick Pilet and Jörg Bergmeister are the winners of the Rowe 6-Stunden ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen, the seventh round of this year’s VLN endurance championship at legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife. This race has a reputation as the season highlight because it’s the longest race of all and the only 6-hour race in the calendar, together with nine 4-hour races.

The victory of Pilet and Bergmeister in the #911 Porsche 911 GT3R is their first win of the season. They marked the win with new distance record for the 6-hour race, making 43 laps around the Green Hell (1,047.394 km). They won with two-minute advantage over #8 Haribo Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3, driven by Uwe Alzen, Lance David Arnold and Jan Seyffarth.

Jörg Müller, Jesse Krohn, Victor Bouveng and Felipe Fernandez Laser secured the third position for the #36 BMW M6 GT3 of Walkenhorst Motorsport powered by Dunlop. The fourth German manufacturer took the fourth place. It was the #5 Phoenix Racing’s Audi R8 LMS, driven by Frank Stippler, Anders Fjordbach and Markus Winkelhock.

156 cars started the race

The race was decided in the thrilling final lap, with #28 Montaplast by Land Motorsports Audi R8 LMS in the lead. Unfortunately for them, Christopher Mies stopped on the last lap with no fuel in the tank, handing the victory to the #911 Porsche crew.

Except for the dramatic finish, the race was marked by historic achievement of the #617  Opel Manta, driven by Olaf Beckmann, Peter Hass, Volker Strycek and Jürgen Schulten. The car entered the history books braking the barrier of 50,000 racing kilometers on the Nordschleife, a record that probably no other car would succeed.

The eighth round of the VLN endurance championship at Nürburgring will take place on September 24, with the 48th edition of the ADAC Barbarossapreis.

Check the full results of Rowe 6-Stunden ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen

Photos: VLN Facebook,