Two weeks on from a class winning performance in the VLN series at the Nurburgring-Norsdschleife, racing driver Raoul Owens will be back at the world-famous venue this weekend, 22nd/23rd April, for the longest race of his career – the six hour ADAC Qualifying Race.
Marking yet another new challenge for the 22-year-old from Pembury, Sunday’s contest offers an opportunity for Owens to add to the experience he has already gained in recent weeks at the immense 24-kilometre German track.
In order to eventually be granted a race permit to compete in the high-profile annual 24 Hour race held at the Nurburgring-Nordschleife, drivers are required to accrue a certain amount of mileage and seat time at the Eifel venue.
Piloting the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW 235i he has been racing in the VLN category, Owens will be partnered by British GT Championship regular Seb Morris, Blancpain GT Series Asia racer Hunter Abbott and German VLN driver Thomas Hetzer in the Cup 5 class.
“After completing VLN 2 I’m looking forward to the six hour this weekend”, said Owens, “Every time I drive at the track I learn something new, which is so important, so I hope to learn as much as possible this weekend. It will be the longest race I have competed in throughout my career so it will be a new challenge, which I am looking forward to taking on.
“Hopefully we can have a clean race with no incidents and even, potentially, get a good result. The car has also been a big learning curve for me as it requires quite a different driving style to anything I have driven before. It’s almost like driving a road car on a race track so, again, the more time I have in the car and on the track the better!”
While the VLN events take place on a single day, this coming weekend’s ADAC qualification race meeting reverts to the more traditional two-day format with around 100 entries in total expected across all classes.
Testing and the opening qualifying session will take place on Saturday, 22nd April, with second qualifying following on Sunday, 23rd April, ahead of the big race itself which gets underway at 12.00 (local time).
Image courtesy of Frozenspeed Motorsport Photography