Motorsport News
Wheel Rim Failure Robs PSR Volvo of a Likely Victory in Round 8
By source: PSR Automotive / Volvo Cars Germany
Oct 17, 2007, 13:36

Throughout the early stages, Ulli Andree looked to be on course for yet another win – until a broken rim put a premature end to the Volvo’s drive in round 8 of the German Endurance Championship.

All of a sudden, the racing driver turned into a passenger. Ulli Andree was just driving out of the Mercedes-Arena on the Nuerburgring when his right front wheel went it’s separate way. „The front-right corner dropped right down; all I saw was the wheel flying over a fence. After that, I only skidded around on the floor,“ said Andree.

The Cologne-based driver bad been comfortably leading when the incident occured. After scoring pole position, he won the start and opened up a commanding lead till lap 6, when the wheel issue brought his and team partner Fredy Lienhard, jr’s race to a premature end. The Swissman had not even taken to the wheel during the race.

A new development tyre of Yokohama had played a vital part in the dominant form shown by Andree and the Volvo in the early stages. The new rubber was designed to deliever a better response to the driver at lower tarmac temperatures and less wear at the same time. It proved an instant success.

After further examination, PSR team principal Danny Berk confirmed: „The rim broke right around the wheel hub. We were quite surprised to see this happen, as we had never even the slightest problem with this part.“ Andree added: „I cannot remember having run a curb too hard or hitting something else and thus putting unreasonably load on the rim, nor did I get a knock on it by some other competitor. It came as a total surprise.“

Berk added: „On the one hand, we are disappointed that we lost what could have been yet another convincing victory – while on the other hand, we are relieved that the rim failure didn’t happen on the Nordschleife but on the Grand Prix circuit with lots of run-off areas. This saved us from a massive off with much more serious consequences.“

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