Mathilda Racing’s Andreas Gülden and Benjamin Leuchter claimed the first victory in the new TCR class of the VLN series (Langstrecken Meisterschaft Nürburgring), the German endurance championship that takes place on the legendary Nordschleife road course.
In the 63. ADAC Westfalenfahrt, a 4-hour race that was the opening round of the series, Gülden and Leuchter drove their Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR to a respectable 31^st place overall (out of 182 starters), covering 26 laps. They beat the LMS Engineering Audi RS3 LMS TCR (43^rd overall) driven by Matthias Wasel, Marcus Löhnert and Artur Goroyan by 9 minutes and 11 seconds, while the Norwegian trio of HåkonSchjærin, Atle Gulbrandson and Kenneth Østvold completed the podium in a second Audi, but one lap behind the winners.
Seven TCR cars – two Volkswagen, two Audi, two SEAT León and one Peugeot 308 – took part in the race.
The VLN second round will be the 42. DMV 4-Stunden-Rennen on 8^th April.