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German Endurance Championship 2004 - Round 4

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  sunnys25 
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Cologne/Nürburg. Volvo and Muehlner Motorsport couldn´t have hoped for a better debut. The team scored an impressive double victory in the very first race it entered a brand new chassis of the successful Volvo S60 race version. Ulli Andree added yet another win to the record of the first car, while Andreas Middendorf and Heinz-Josef Bermes brought the new sister outfit home in second place.

The fourth round of the German Endurance Championship was meant to serve as shakedown for chassis MMV-04 which Muehlner Motorsport has built from scratch in order to repeat last year´s victory in the prestigious 24 Hour Race at the Nuerburgring. "We only fired the car up for the first time last Wednesday," said team principal Bernhard Muehlner. "You can never rule out minor glitches on a car as new as this."

However, drivers Middendorf and Bermes couldn´t be asked to tame their tempers too much. Both contested their first race of the season in a Volvo S60, and in addition to finding out the differences of the new chassis, they were also hungry for success. "We knew this race was mainly meant to be a test session," admitted Bermes. "But once you´ve started a race weekend, you obviously want to be as successful as you possibly can, let alone what the team tactics really are…"

Volvo´s main man Andree qualified the regular championship car on pole, followed by arch rival Rainer Wehner in his BMW M3, DTC-driver Reinhard Huber in a works supported 2,5 litre-Opel Astra Coupé and Middendorf in the new Volvo S60. "Andy didn´t have time to test on Friday," commented Muehlner. "From that point of view it was promising to see that he nonetheless was fast straight out of the box."

Both Volvo right away took command of the last race before the 24 hour mega event in June. Andree led on the opening lap from Middendorf, with a bunch of Porsche from a different category between the two of them. But while Andree clung onto the lead quite easily, Middendorf had a scary moment at the end of lap one. "The box for the most important fuses and switches has been moved to a different position inside the cockpit. I hadn´t really realized this until I touched the main switch with my elbow and shut the entire system down - which on one hand means that the repositioning serves it´s purpose and the switches are indeed within much easier reach for the drivers but on the other hand caused my car to go silent within the blink of an eye."

After grinding to a halt at the end of the main straightaway, it suddenly dawned on Middendorf that nothing was broken or had sheared - but that the car was simply turned off. "It took a while to realize that," Middendorf stated. While he dropped right back to the tail of the field and started an impressive chase through the pack, his team-mate Andree led convincingly. The championship leader of the class in which the Volvos are entered came in for fuel and fresh rubber after lap ten and rejoined still in the lead. Due to the Volvo´s stop Rainer Wehner had closed the gap, but when his BMW crew decided on the 11th lap to not only refuel but also change tyres on his car during his first pit stop, Wehner lost some time in the pit and dropped right back out of contention for the victory.

Middendorf, meanwhile, had brought his Volvo back up to third. He pitted one lap later than leader Andree and handed the new car to Bermes. After a quick stop, Bermes managed to get past Wehner´s BMW in the pits and held on to second place right till the end, securing an impressive double-victory for Volvo Team Muehlner. "Our new aerodynamics have made the car even more stable and forgiving," noted Bermes. "This car is by far the best which Muehlner has ever delivered for a 24-hour race."

Middendorf, too, was happy with second place: "Even if I had not encountered the problem on the end of the opening lap, we couldn´t have achieved more than second place against Ulli, who had a perfect drive." Andree enjoyed a quiet afternoon, holding on to the lead and opening up an ever-increasing gap as the race went on: "I had to stop for a Splash and Dash two laps from the end but that was always part of our strategy anyway and I had a big enough lead. I managed two turns without any dramas at all - and I´m very happy to have scored yet another victory for Volvo Team Muehlner Motorsport."
 
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