Klaus Landgraf and his team mate Yannick Fübrich had a successful start of the VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft season 2011 at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The duo finished the first race of the current season on 2nd April 2011 into second position with their BMW 325i.
“With this result, we exceeded our expectations by much”, said the two drivers happily on Saturday after the race.
And indeed: Straightaway, there was a great harmony in the team and the car of “Schmickler Performance” was very well prepared. The BMW with start number 455 was already very quick on the wet track during qualifying early Saturday morning and achieved fourth position on the grid. “We did however not want to take too big risks”, informed Yannick Fübrich. And Klaus Landgraf added: “The grid position in an endurance race is definitely not as decisive as it is for a sprint race.”
Just after 12 o’clock, the starting signal for the 4 Hour Race was given and the 165 race cars started their race on the 24.369 kilometres long combination of the Nürburgring sprint circuit and the Nordschleife. During the following 23 laps, the BMW 325i E90 scored one fast lap after another and constantly moved up in the field. After the distance of 560.487 kilometres, they finally finished second in class V4.
“A fantastic start of the season for us”, was the later summary of 19 years old Fübrich, in particular as it was decided only recently that he would be able to compete together with Klaus Landgraf in this most popular club racing series in Europe.
“We know each other still from karting, when we both competed in the GTC”, explains the 37 years old Landgraf. “We meet in January to have a talk, upon which Yannick joined our team.” It is right and important for the man from Bad Kreuznach/ Germany to support rookies like Fübrich who lives in Heilbronn/ Germany. “It was the absolutely right decision, as you could see today!”
They will also compete together in the next races and they will certainly have a class win in their minds. They can try next on 30th April 2011, at the second race of the VLN 2011
