Last week was one of the highlights of the Rinaldi Racing programme.

There, the troop from Mendig looked after the Ferrari 488 GT3 of the Wochenspiegel Team Monschau. Georg Weiss (bronze), Oliver Kainz (bronze), Jochen Krumbach (silver) and Daniel Keilwitz (gold) shared the steering wheel work in the ProAm class.

Already on Wednesday, the Adenauer Racing Day took place, where selected racing cars were allowed to present themselves. The atmosphere among the fans was great and the number of spectators enormous.

On Thursday afternoon, the first sessions finally started. The drivers were able to get used to the warm temperatures and in the evening also the track conditions at night. Already in the first qualifying session, the riders were able to set a good time and ended up in fifth place. Good conditions for the next few days.

On Friday morning, the second qualifying session continued directly. The drivers felt very comfortable in the Ferrari 488 GT3 and were able to keep up with the speed of the leaders. In the last lap of qualifying, Daniel Keilwitz put in a brilliant performance. With a lap time of 8:14.591 minutes, he secured first place. An absolute top performance, which also reflected the performance of the Italian car. This also allowed Rinaldi Racing to qualify for the Top30 Qualifying.

For the Top30 Qualifying, the Wochenspiegel Ferrari started with Jochen Krumbach at the wheel. All 30 cars lined up behind each other on the start and finish straight and were sent out on their laps every 10 seconds. Jochen Krumbach was able to clock an 8:16.365 on his very first lap – a fabulous lap for the team. In the end, Rinaldi Racing achieved a fabulous fourth place, not even one second behind the pole time.

So on Sunday, they started the race from fourth place and the second row of the grid. The starting signal for the 24-hour race was given punctually at 3.30 pm. Oliver Kainz was able to make up one position right at the start. After the first pit stop and the change to Jochen Krumbach, the team experienced a small moment of shock: right after the Ferrari was back on the track, it was hit by a Porsche and spun. Fortunately, the car was not damaged in the process and was able to continue after a few minutes. Until nightfall, the Ferrari ran without any problems and the drivers were also able to keep up with good lap times. During the night, the drivers completed double stints and were always able to stay in the top 10. Early in the morning, Georg Weiss took the wheel. He also completed his laps without any problems. In the last hour, the Ferrari with the starting number 22 was in 11th place. Jochen Krumbach took over the final stint. Nobody really expected what happened next. 20 minutes before the end of the race, the teams were informed that it was starting to rain. Now they had to make the right decision: stay on slicks or change to rain tyres. Jochen Krumbach decided to use rain tyres. The Ferrari turned into the pits for a wheel change. With a super-fast pit stop, the mechanics delivered a top performance and sent Krumbach back on track. The change to rain tyres proved to be the right decision. On the last two laps, Krumbach was able to overtake a few competitors and secured seventh place overall. In addition, the driver squad around Georg Weiss secured first place in the ProAm standings.

Michele Rinaldi: “What a race and what a week for our team. A top 10 finish as a private team among all the factory teams, that’s quite something. To sum it up: seventh overall, first place in ProAm, fastest race lap from all the sessions with an 8:14.591 and the fastest race lap during the race with an 8:19.375. What more could you want. The drivers did a great job. They completed lap after lap without any problems and kept working their way to the front. Also big praise to the mechanics who gave everything at every pit stop, especially at the last unscheduled stop. We set up the 24h Nürburgring as a real customer sports project. The whole package was just right. The Ferrari is perfectly suited as a customer sports car, where the customer is supported and put in the foreground. The combination of Ferrari as a customer sports vehicle and the good product from Michelin makes it a safe and solid complete package for bronze drivers as well, with which they can live out their grandiose passion for motorsport. Thanks again to Georg Weiss, without him, the project would not have come to fruition.”