Schubert finishes second and third on the Nordschleife
BMW Team Schubert’s Z4 GT3s finished second and third in a weather-shortened VLN enduro on the Norsdschleife at the Nürburgring. Claudia Hürtgen, Dominik Schwager, and Dirk Adorf finished second and Uwe Alzen and Nico Bastian finished third. The win went to Porsche’s Jochen Krumbach, and Marc Lieb.
The #19 Z4 of Alzen and Bastian appeared to be on its way to a win, but it pitted just before officials ended the race due to a heavy hailstorm. The other front runners had stayed out, so #19 had dropped to third when the race was ended.
Alzen said, “It’s just great that we made it on the podium. Obviously we would have loved to win here. We had held the lead for most of the race and had just completed our final pit stop, when the red flags came out. That’s a pity, but such things can happen in motor racing. The fact we still managed to finish third shows the competitiveness of our overall package. A big compliment goes to BMW Team Schubert and my team-mate Nico Bastian: Everyone in the team did a great job today. Now I’m really looking forward to the next VLN race – and, of course, I cannot wait for the 24-hour race to get underway.”
The 40th running of the Nürburgring 24 hour race will take place on May 19 and 20.
D’Aste and Coronel score fourth place finishes in Marrakech
BMW privateer Stefano D’Aste finished fourth in the first of two World Touring Car Championship races run on the streets of Marrakech, and ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel finished fourth in the second race.
Chevrolet continued its domination of WTCC competition in Morocco, sweeping the podium in both races. Alain Menu won race one and Yvan Muller won race two.
Coronel started fourth on the race one grid, but was hit on the first lap. He recovered to finish eighth. D’Aste moved up to fifth from his twelfth place starting spot, and BMW racer Franz Engstler finished sixth.
Coronel started eighth in race two and made his way up to fourth, finishing just ahead of D’Aste.
Coronel remains the best of the rest in drivers’ points, standing fourth behind Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller, Alain Menu, and Rob Huff.
The series runs again in Slovakia on April 29.—Brian S. Morgan, motorsports editor, bmwcca.org
