ROTEK Racing took their first win in dominant fashion when they took their Audi TT RS to victory in the SP4T class of the prestigious VLN series at the Nurburgring on Saturday. The record field (over 210 cars) took the green flag under atrocious conditions with freezing rain and heavy fog making for tough going for the over 500 drivers.
ROTEK Racing’s Uli Baumert started from pole position in the SP4T class leading the second wave of starters down through the opening lap. With the harsh conditions early in the race causing multiple incidents, discretion played the better part of valor and Baumert brought the TT RS safely in for it’s first scheduled stop and driver change in 3rd place in class. With conditions not looking like improving in the near future the team sent their new signee, WTCC driver Robb Holland, out on a scuffed set of Dunlop full wets.
Holland came to grips with the conditions and the car very quickly taking 30 seconds out of the class leaders on his opening lap! By the time the team brought Holland in for the second pit stop on lap 17 he had gotten the Audi back up into the lead. With improving conditions, the team made the gusty call to switch to slicks, even though it was still raining on sections of the 25.4 km long track.
Holland proceeded to put in some impressive laps in the ever changing conditions, consistently putting time on the second place Audi all the way to the checkered flag. In addition to the win the team also came away with fastest lap in class, with Holland putting in a time of 9:26.52 (154.86 km/hr) on the penultimate lap.
The team plans to skip the upcoming 24 Hours of Nurburgring but will return their Audi TT RS to action on June 22 for the next round of the VLN the Adenauer ADAC Simfy Trophy.
