After the spectacular races at Silverstone for rounds 1 and 2 of this years Dutch Supercar Challenge the teams headed for the Nürburgring Grand Prix track.
The carnage at the start of the Sunday race at Silverstone had left its marks as the Strata 21 was not repaired in time to make it to the track. Both Kevin Riley Motorsport and BlueBerry Racing had put in a lot of effort to repair the severe damage to the front of their cars. Driver Berry van Elk stayed up late to finish stickering his car himself to give his crew a much needed rest. Both cars were good to go for the sunny and hot practice sessions on Thursday. Not only the Strata 21 Mosler did not participate this weekend, Martin Short will be out for some time with a broken kneecap an wrist after a football accident on vacation.
Practice saw mixed results for the Mosler entries. The BlueBerry Racing MT900R managed a great second time on the sheets, but Kevin Riley had some trouble finding the right setup. Mosler rookie Alex van 't Hoff in the Mad and Daring Mosler, supported by two of Mosler Europe finest team members, had a very disappointing start of the weekend as his crankshaft broke in two. With no spare engine on site he had no other option but to share the team's Corvette Z06 GT3 with Rick Abresch for the rest of the weekend.
Qualifying was the only session on Friday for the Dutch Supercar Challenge. Berry van Elk knew he was in a position to go for pole after his good results the day before. But early in the session he locked up his right front tyre to create a big flat spot. While trying to cope with the violent vibrations he recorded a good 2.05.495 before coming into the pits for a new set of rubber. Unfortunately after warming up his new tyres he was not able to improve his time due to the traffic on track. In the end he found himself in a solid fifth for the race on Saturday. Nonetheless he could not hide his disappointment: "There really was a lot more possible today. I think pole was on the cards, but I locked my front brake early in the session which ruined my tyres. I should have switched to new rubber earlier but against better judgment I stayed out. Although in fifth I have a good position to go for the podium, I am far from pleased at the moment."
Kevin Riley put in a laptime of 2.07.814 to secure a eleventh place on the grid. Guest entry Arjan van der Zwaan and Siebrand Dijkstra put their Audi R8 GT3 on pole, just 0.01 second ahead of Cor Euser in his Marcos. Peter Versluis completed the top three in his Ferrari F430 GT2.
The race on Saturday started in the usual bad fashion for Berry van Elk. The young Dutchman chose the wrong side of the pack at the first corner and was overtaken by half the field. From that moment things went from bad to worse as his right rear suspension became somewhat loose. Van Elk parked his car in the pit lane where his mechanics managed to fix the problem. When he resumed his race he found himself six laps down on the leading pack of Euser, Versluis, Van der Zwaan and Snel. After a very decent second half of the race Van Elk finished ninth in the GT class, five laps down on winners Dijkstra - Van der Zwaan. Peter Versluis showed his intentions to end up high on the rankings this year by beating Cor Euser for the second step of the podium. Kevin Riley steered his Mosler to a good fifth position.
Sunday was the first real wet day of the weekend. Almost all cars started the race on rain tyres, except for Kevin Riley who opted for intermediates. Already in the first corner it was clear he made the wrong choice as he spun and resumed in last position. Until he switched to full wets during the mandatory pit stops the Englishman lost over fifteen seconds a lap, enough to render him well out of contention for the podium.
Meanwhile Van Elk continued his bad weekend as he struggled to keep his car on track in the wet. Failing to do this on several occasions he finally decided to quit the race to prevent the collected gravel to damage his car. "In the dry the handling is great, but as soon as I am in the wet the car becomes very unpredictable." according to Van Elk. "I tried to fiddle with the brake balance but I might have done something wrong as I locked up my brakes coming onto the hairpin. I did not want to ruin another set of tyres so I released the brake, but by the time the car had slowed down enough to make the corner I was already over a 100 feet into the gravel trap." With both Riley and Van Elk failing to finish the race it was a bad day for the Mosler marque.
The next race weekend will be held at Assen, the Netherlands on the 15th and 16th of May in support of the Superleague Formula.
The carnage at the start of the Sunday race at Silverstone had left its marks as the Strata 21 was not repaired in time to make it to the track. Both Kevin Riley Motorsport and BlueBerry Racing had put in a lot of effort to repair the severe damage to the front of their cars. Driver Berry van Elk stayed up late to finish stickering his car himself to give his crew a much needed rest. Both cars were good to go for the sunny and hot practice sessions on Thursday. Not only the Strata 21 Mosler did not participate this weekend, Martin Short will be out for some time with a broken kneecap an wrist after a football accident on vacation.
Practice saw mixed results for the Mosler entries. The BlueBerry Racing MT900R managed a great second time on the sheets, but Kevin Riley had some trouble finding the right setup. Mosler rookie Alex van 't Hoff in the Mad and Daring Mosler, supported by two of Mosler Europe finest team members, had a very disappointing start of the weekend as his crankshaft broke in two. With no spare engine on site he had no other option but to share the team's Corvette Z06 GT3 with Rick Abresch for the rest of the weekend.
Qualifying was the only session on Friday for the Dutch Supercar Challenge. Berry van Elk knew he was in a position to go for pole after his good results the day before. But early in the session he locked up his right front tyre to create a big flat spot. While trying to cope with the violent vibrations he recorded a good 2.05.495 before coming into the pits for a new set of rubber. Unfortunately after warming up his new tyres he was not able to improve his time due to the traffic on track. In the end he found himself in a solid fifth for the race on Saturday. Nonetheless he could not hide his disappointment: "There really was a lot more possible today. I think pole was on the cards, but I locked my front brake early in the session which ruined my tyres. I should have switched to new rubber earlier but against better judgment I stayed out. Although in fifth I have a good position to go for the podium, I am far from pleased at the moment."
Kevin Riley put in a laptime of 2.07.814 to secure a eleventh place on the grid. Guest entry Arjan van der Zwaan and Siebrand Dijkstra put their Audi R8 GT3 on pole, just 0.01 second ahead of Cor Euser in his Marcos. Peter Versluis completed the top three in his Ferrari F430 GT2.
The race on Saturday started in the usual bad fashion for Berry van Elk. The young Dutchman chose the wrong side of the pack at the first corner and was overtaken by half the field. From that moment things went from bad to worse as his right rear suspension became somewhat loose. Van Elk parked his car in the pit lane where his mechanics managed to fix the problem. When he resumed his race he found himself six laps down on the leading pack of Euser, Versluis, Van der Zwaan and Snel. After a very decent second half of the race Van Elk finished ninth in the GT class, five laps down on winners Dijkstra - Van der Zwaan. Peter Versluis showed his intentions to end up high on the rankings this year by beating Cor Euser for the second step of the podium. Kevin Riley steered his Mosler to a good fifth position.
Sunday was the first real wet day of the weekend. Almost all cars started the race on rain tyres, except for Kevin Riley who opted for intermediates. Already in the first corner it was clear he made the wrong choice as he spun and resumed in last position. Until he switched to full wets during the mandatory pit stops the Englishman lost over fifteen seconds a lap, enough to render him well out of contention for the podium.
Meanwhile Van Elk continued his bad weekend as he struggled to keep his car on track in the wet. Failing to do this on several occasions he finally decided to quit the race to prevent the collected gravel to damage his car. "In the dry the handling is great, but as soon as I am in the wet the car becomes very unpredictable." according to Van Elk. "I tried to fiddle with the brake balance but I might have done something wrong as I locked up my brakes coming onto the hairpin. I did not want to ruin another set of tyres so I released the brake, but by the time the car had slowed down enough to make the corner I was already over a 100 feet into the gravel trap." With both Riley and Van Elk failing to finish the race it was a bad day for the Mosler marque.
The next race weekend will be held at Assen, the Netherlands on the 15th and 16th of May in support of the Superleague Formula.
