Motorsport News
Excellent Second Place in the Championship´s Toughtest Race
By source: PSR
Aug 27, 2006, 14:26

The Volvo S60 driven by Ulli Andree/Andreas Middendorf/Stephan Herter and entered by team PSR, of Adenau, finished second in class in Saturday´s round of the German Endurance Championship. A podium position in the prestigous Six-Hour Race, which is regarded as the highlight of the championship, left the team more than satisfied.

Regular driver Stephan Herter had to start from fourth in class on the grid after the team had to make do with an early-morning qualifying lap, driven by Andreas Middendorf. "When I did the lap, it was still wet in places," said the man who was drafted in as third man for the long-distance race. "Our plan was for Ulli Andree to better my time in the closing stages of qualifying. But sadly, that didn´t materialise."

Andree had to abandon his first flying lap. "In order to improve performance, Team PSR had lightened the Volvo by about 30 kilos. This meant a much better roadholding. In conjunction with the fantastic Dunlop slicks, the car went like a rocket, and I was quicker at all the split times than I had ever been in a Volvo before," Andree was grateful for the efforts his team had put in. "Sadly, I then met a group of three slower cars. I had to brake hard and shift right back from sixth into third gear and subsequently decided to call it a day for that lap". When he wanted to start his second attempt, the car died underneath him. "We had put in a brand new battery, which then collapsed on the main straight, causing a shortage in the electrics. As we left our last attempt ´till the very closing stages of qualifying, we ran out of time to change the battery during the session."

Herter took the wheel at the start. He lost a place to the hard-charging Sebastian Stahl in a BMW and ran safely for most of the first stint. "His car was faster than mine on the straights but I could follow him nose to tail through the twistier stuff. Then, he crashed out right in front of me." The BMW of the Bonk siblings, which had started from second in class, struck problems, too. Herter inherited second position, which he held until the end of his stint. "There were no major dramas any more, and I was satisfied with my pace – especially given that the best 3 BMWs had between 80 and 100 bhp more in them than our car."
A misunderstanding caused Herter to pit before the 12-lap mark. "The problem was," he sighed, "that our radio wasn´t working. I hadn´t counted the number of laps I did and I couldn´t see my pit board either, so I came in a lap early."

"When that happened," added team principal Danny Berk, "we had to alter our strategy. We were meant to do just three pit stops. But fuel-wise, that would have only worked out if both Stephan and Andy would have stayed out for 12 laps each. When Stephan came in early, we knew we needed a splash and dash – and shortened Andy´s turn, too, in order to make breathing space for Ulli´s late, quick pit stop towards the end of the race."

Middendorf, meanwhile, stayed second during the middle-part of the race. "I couldn´t make any inrods on the leading BMW but held a safe second position, with not many changes overall," he said. "But that doesn´t mean my stint was uneventful; quite on the contrary: There appeared to be an unusually high number of Nordschleife rookies and small cars in the field this time. I had to pay special attention to avoid being dragged into any accidents when lapping these people. From the mental point of view, I found my turn extremely tough."

After ploughing through the field for 11 laps, Middendorf handed the car to Andree for the closing stages, still in second place. Andree was quicker than class leader Giuliani and made up a lot of positions in the overall rankings, climbing from P21 to P15 overall. But there was no way he could have caught the leading car: "To be honest, I was sweating of fear during my stint. The battery warning light went back on with about an hour to go. But as the dashboard showed me that the voltage inside the electric circle was still okay, I ignored the warning light as much as I could. Towards the end of my stint, I started to feel strange and alarming vibrations from the front end. After the race, we discovered that the rubber of both driveshafts had broken."

Andree nursed the car home in second, and team principal Berk sighed of relief. "We are all extremely happy and satisfied with second place in such a demanding race, facing as stiff an opposition as we did today," sighed Berk. "It´s normally not my style to single out one single technical partner of ours. But today, we have to be extremely grateful to our partner GKN for supplying us with driveshafts that endured the torture in the last hour and held up to the constant strains. They were a major factor in us finishing second."



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