12.10.12 Victory with an aftertaste

Success and failure were not far apart at the last round of the Youngtimer Trophy.

Together with car owner Dieter Dörmann, Kaufmann again raced the Ford Escort RS 1600 with perfect preparation by Porsche Kremer Racing, and put the Youngtimer on pole position. Frantic activity broke out on Sunday morning when in the second timed practice session the clutch started acting up and had to be changed before the race. “the Kremer mechanics did this in their usual fast and reliable way, the car ran troublefree in time for the race at noon”, says Kaufmann.

Dörmann started the race, and pitted after more than half the race distance. He handed the Escort over to Wolfgang Kaufmann in third place. The man from Molsberg brought the Escort back to the head of the field, and the team took a secure victory. Nevetheless, Kaufmann/Dörmann were not allowed onto the victory podium as race control handed them a time penalty that set them back to fifth place. Wolfgang Kaufmann had little sympathy for the rule in question: “In the Youngtimer trophy, it is regulated that a professional driver must not be in the car for more than 40% of the race distance if he shares his car with a non-professional. Before the race at Zolder, we asked the organisers for a clarification of my ranking, and we drove the race according to this. Today, different rules seem to apply.”