DE
EN
Region/Lausitzring. The 4th race of the German Endurance Cup (DLC) "GoPro Hero 3“ for motorcycles took place on the 19th of July on the Eurospeedway at the Lausitzring / Klettwitz. Sasha Müller from Hirzenhain-Merkenfritz and his racing partner Danny Märtz from Hockenheim started for the Honda Wellbrock Racing team from Lilienthal.
In spite of the low temperature for this time of the year and downpours on the race day, Müller and Märtz were highly motivated to achieve a good result. Sasha Müller, who had never before raced at the Lausitzring, achieved first place after training and had enough time to acclimatise himself to the driving conditions. After getting to know the circuit, it was Danny Märtz's turn, and he was able to use the last few minutes of training to practice. He managed to get a good 5th starting place for his team.
The classic Le Mans start in the 6 hour race suited Märtz well, and was able to hold fifth masterfully with steady lap times up until his first pit stop. By starting in the legendary Endurance class, in which a team only has a single motorcycle to start with, the pit stops are longer, and one automatically "slides" to the bottom of the overall class ranking. Due to the driver's change, the team fell back to 15th place but their riders quickly made up ground with fast lap times. Märtz was sent out onto the track with worn tyres for his 5th stint. Due to a gathering thunderstorm, conditions on the track became more risky. The Honda Racing team waited, whereupon the race became genuinely exciting. Just as Märtz entered the pits to refuel it began to rain and he was able to change over to rain tyres straight away. Müller started out on the wet track and managed some fast lap times. It was only when the track had dried out that Müller came back to the pits to refuel.
The racing team decided to send him out onto the track once again until it was time for dry tyres again. Then Märtz was able to really kick in. Following a perfectly timed pit stop, they both fought their way up the overall and class placings. After Märtz came in for the changeover there was still one hour and 10 minutes to go. Sasha lined up for the final spurt and handed the bike over Märtz after 30 minutes, and he completed the final 40 minutes to the finish. At the end they were rated 10th overall, and found that they had indeed won in the "Real-Endurance" class. The Honda Wellbrock Racing team was very happy with this result and would like to thank sponsors Wolfgang Wellbrock, Ravenol Ravensberger Schmierstoffvertrieb GmbH with Martin Huning, Müller mobil GmbH (Hirzenhain-Merkenfritz), Schilderwerk Dirk Reuter (Nidda), Tankservice Müller (Hirzenhain-Merkenfritz) and Accu24 with Thomas Menzel and all of his assistants. The team can now take this result into the Speedweek Oschersleben and the Hockenheim 300 mile events.