Over 160 starters at the highlight of the season: the Uniroyal Fun Cup

Win for Gummi Grassau Racing

Hannover/ Spa, July 2007. The Uniroyal Fun Cup continues to grow apace: with a total of 162 starters, there were more vehicles than ever before on the rebuilt race track in Spa Francorchamps competing in the 25-hour race on the weekend of 6^th to 8^th July. The English team JPR Motorsport led at intervals and might have been the first non-Belgian winning team, but in the end Maes-Van Oost won ahead of two other local teams. In the German race a defective wheel bearing prevented the long-anticipated win by Black Panther shortly before the end. So ultimately it was Gummi Grassau Racing who took their place at the top of the podium – the fourth winner in the fourth heat. The excitement continues.

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The 25-hour racing marathon of the Uniroyal Fun Cup in Spa Francorchamps is the absolute highlight of the season every year. Initially dull and rainy skies cast a threatening air over the transformed race track: with the rebuilding of the Bus Stop chicane, the track is now 7,003 km long, and in several places gravel traps have been replaced with asphalt surfaces and larger crash areas. Following the demolition of the Formula 1 pits in the upper paddock, a gigantic new building with much larger pits has been built, which at long last also houses toilets.

The Belgian Continental Corporation used the dazzling international dimension of the event to host approximately 600 guests. Ludo Hendrickx had planned an extensive programme: “We don’t just use cars for Uniroyal, but also have two yellow taxis – so our guests needn’t just watch; there’s also scope for a limited number to participate. This long-distance race provides conclusive proof of the superior performance of Uniroyal rain tires.”

The huge number of cars lined up at the start included 10 Italian teams, 12 German, 16 English, 42 French and 63 Belgian, together with several other teams from the USA, Sweden and Germany (Stoll). The Italians were driving a six-hour race for the national Fun Cup Championship within the 25-hour race, but in actual fact only one team actually stopped. All of the others carried on to the end.

There were a total of 13 teams from Germany. Stoll Motorsport chose to start in position 67 and with a strong team were keen to be at the front of the pack. In training they were amongst the 20 fastest, leading at the front with lap times of under 3:10 minutes. Only nine teams achieved times under 3:09. With Black Panther and Impuls 1 two teams were hard on the heels of this lead group, Grassau and Stoll (with the second car, starting position 167) were already two seconds behind. At the end of the starter field MK Racing 2 and the colourful team at number 170 lined up with times of 3:22 and 3:28.

In the separate class of two seaters, German number 327 also took its place on the grid; there were a total of 20 of these vehicles, which even race with two people. A taxi sign was mounted on the roof of number 327. Italian Continental employee Alberto Bergamaschi allowed some guests to participate in the action in this racing taxi, the majority of whom came away sporting red cheeks and wide eyes - the drivers didn’t spare themselves or their vehicles and drove completely “normally” along with the rest of the field at racing speed. This is the only time that guests ever have the chance to get this close to the racing action.

On the race day the grey clouds lifted, the sun shone, and the temperatures rose. After the first four racing hours Impuls 1 was at the head of the German contingent in 22^nd place overall, ahead of Gummi Grassau, Black Panther and MK Racing 1. By this point the team led by Belgian fashion designer Gilles Debrus had dropped back again from third place because of a defect. Then Impuls 1 suffered an incredible misfortune: the twin accelerator cables tore at the same time, and towing off and repairs cost valuable time. Six laps behind, Impuls 1 was now only fourth place after seven hours. After ten hours the Conti Motorpresse team with Hermann Rottwilm, Andreas Leue, Sebastian Schneider and Horst Wippersteg had also pushed past Impuls 1.

Things were even worse for Impuls 2: the gremlins just kept on causing trouble, MK Racing 2 didn’t fare much better, and the engine of Stoll’s number 67 just wouldn’t play. So the car stayed in the pits. It was only when the carburettors were carefully cleaned that the car ran perfectly and achieved lap times of 3:10 minutes, but by then the race was well underway.

At the half-time point, after twelve hours, the first points were won by the MK Racing team with start number 168, the winners at Adria. They were followed by Black Panther then Conti Motorpresse, Gummi Grassau and the blue Impuls 1 car. The blue Gersthofen team were stopped in their tracks in their race of catch-up when the second, fourth and fifth gears gave up the ghost. The gearbox change cost a good half hour of repair time.

Meanwhile the Black Panther was stalking swiftly ahead at the head of the German contingent, followed by Grassau and Team Conti. MK Racing made their exit after a bad accident in the Blanchimont, a full-throttle left-hand hairpin. There were to be no winners in the battle with an English car, which was also completely written-off in the accident. Fortunately both drivers were able to climb out of the remains of the vehicles. Recently Kalle Kern had been lucky to escape injury following an accident in Zolder, but this time he had to be fitted with a neck brace by the race doctor: “I was on the inside when the English driver pulled into my course. My front and his back touched and we shot straight into the side.”

After 23 hours Black Panther was leading laps ahead of Grassau and Team Conti. Stoll Motorsport was closing up from behind. When Black Panther’s fated wheel bearing went in the final hour and the drive shaft crumbled, the dreams of victory of team leader Oliver Heider shattered. From being race leader, Black Panther dropped back by five laps. As Swiss journalist Peter Wyss, driving for Stoll, mounted the podium he was congratulating himself about his lucky third place: “I love this track and the Fun Cup is incredible fun.” But the loudest cheers came from Gummi Grassau, drivers Heike and André Reinke and Joachim Peterwitz as well of course as the equally exhausted mechanics, who had already had enough bad luck this season and had now at long last also achieved their hard earned victory. This time it was their turn to collect the biggest trophies – after MK Racing (Adria), Impuls (Oschersleben) and Black Panther (Zolder).

The overall winner completed a total of 431 laps, a good 3,000 kilometres. Three cars followed at a distance of two laps, including the English JPR team, which finally finished in fourth place. Grassau came overall 24^th (417 laps), Team Conti finished 27^th overall, having completed 416 laps, as did Stoll who finished 30^th. The fastest lap time was by English team Tiger with 3:08.613, the best time for the German teams was Impuls 1 with 3:10.344.

The next Uniroyal Fun Cup weekend takes place on 27^th / 28^th July in Hockenheim. In celebration of the 75^th anniversary of the Hockenheimring a variety of events has been planned around the five-hour main Fun Cup race – from the historic Formula 1 to live music acts with PUR, Reamon and Christina Stürmer. More information will follow shortly.

The Uniroyal Fun Cup is a brand trophy, with races held in Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, England and Spain. In Germany, the racing cars - which weigh 760 kg and are powered by a 130 horsepower engine - can be driven by anybody. The VW Beetle lookalike plastic body houses a specially designed tubular frame chassis featuring low-cost mass-produced parts. A complete new vehicle costs around Euro 34,000. Anyone interested should visit www.funcup.eu.

Since 1895 the Belgian rubber goods manufacturer Englebert has been producing tyres for customers which include Continental AG. After the company merged with US Rubber in 1958 it became known as Uniroyal Englebert. In 1979 Uniroyal, inventor of the rain tyre, became a European brand of Continental AG, Hanover.

The Continental Corporation is a leading automotive supplier of brake systems, chassis components, vehicle electronics, tyres and technical elastomers. In 2006 the corporation realized sales of EUR 14.9 billion. At present it has a worldwide workforce of around 87,000.