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Nürburgring Endurance

Phoenix Audis Sweep VLN Season Opener

Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS victorious in VLN season opener…

Photo: Vincent Wouters

Photo: Vincent Wouters

Despite a post-race penalty for one of its cars, Phoenix Racing scored a 1-2 sweep in the ADAC Westfalenfahrt, Saturday’s season-opening round of the VLN season.

The No. 5 Audi R8 LMS of Frank Stippler and Anders Fjordbach crossed the finish line in second, 15 seconds behind the sister No. 15 car of Laurens Vanthoor and Christopher Haase, but was handed the win as the latter got a 35-second penalty for overtaking under yellow.

Stippler qualified the Audi in fifth (+3.232s) and passed the pole-sitting Land Motorsport Audi of Marc Basseng on the fifth lap.

Despite the green track and a 10 percent reduction in power for the top classes, the eight-minute barrier is still within reach, as pole was set in 8:06.097.

The No. 6 AMG Team Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Bernd Schneider, Maro Engel, Adam Christodoulou and Manuel Metzger completed the podium, fending off the Haribo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Uwe Alzen, Lance David Arnold, Maxi Götz and Jan Seyffarth for a mere +0.389s after four hours of racing.

Land Motorsport made it three Audis in the top-five, with the Bentley Team ABT Continental GT3 of Steven Kane, Christer Jöns and Chris Brück finishing in sixth.

The best placed BMW M6 GT3, the No. 35 Walkenhorst Motorsport entry of Matias Henkola and Michele Di Martino Michele, ended up in P7, while both ROWE Racing and Schubert Motorsport couldn’t manage a top ten.

The new Porsche 911 GT3 R showed its pace and led the field for a couple of laps, but in the end both Manthey Racing factory entered cars fell back to P10 and P11 with tire punctures.

RESULTS: VLN 1 ADAC Westfalenfahrt

Vincent Wouters (@VinceWouters) is a Belgium-based sports car racing reporter, providing coverage primarily of the Blancpain GT Series.

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