15.08.14 Podium finish at the Grenzlandrennen for Wolfgang Kaufmann

Two punctures kept Wolfgang Kaufmann and his team Kremer Porsche from victory in the latest VLN round.

KREMER PORSCHE 997 KR

Wolfgang Kaufmann

The second half of the VLN endurance championship season got off to a promising start for Wolfgang Kaufmann. Following final setup work on Friday, the Saturday morning saw the hunt for the best qualifying times commence. In only 90 minutes the objective was to get the Kremer Racing Porsche 997 KR as far up the starting grid as possible. Kaufmann lived up to this task: he took pole position in the SP7 class with an advantage of about three seconds over his fastest opponent.

Things were looking good for a fine result for Kaufmann and the Kremer Racing team in the 37th RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen. The professional from Molsberg was scheduled to drive the two initial stints in order to get as much distance as possible between himself and the competition in his class. But even before the end of his first stint things went awry: under acceleration out of the Bergwerk section, it became clear that a right rear puncture was imminent. "To prevent further damage to the wheel and the car, I immediately slowed down", Kaufmann describes the agonisingly slow miles that followed before he got back to his pit box. The Porsche 911 received new tyres as well as fuel, and Kaufmann was sent back out. In spite of the deficit the team had incurred, he kept fighting for the win in SP7. And again, a tyre failure hampered his success. At almost exactly the same spot as before, the right rear tyre deflated, and Kaufmann again had to bring the car back to pit lane at a crawl. Even tough the team lost some time with these unscheduled pit stops, it was eventually a podium result for Kaufmann/Baunach/Schiewitz. 3rd place was a fine achievement under the given circumstances, but they found it hard to be jubilant after they had been denied a probably class win: "The car really worked very well, the win was clearly within reach", Kaufmann says, "now we have to examine why we had the same problem twice, especially as it was an absolutely unusual defect."

The season continues without a break for Wolfgang Kaufmann. After the Oldtimer Grand Prix, which goes ahead this weekend at the Nürburgring, he will be in action again in the Youngtimer Trophy with his trusty Ford Escort, in the VLN 6 hour race for Kremer Racing, and at the 24 Hours of Zolder in Belgium in a Porsche 996 Cup.