Maranello 17 January 2020
It was a stormy season from the meteorological point of view, but also from the point of view of results, for the Ferraris involved in the VLN, the championship that takes place exclusively on the Nordschleife, the northern ring of the Nürburgring circuit. After the sensational choice by Wochenspiegel Team Munchau not to participate in the series after the announcement by organizers to reduce car power by 5% in the SP-9, SP-X and SP-Pro classes, citing safety reasons, Prancing Horse colours were represented by the 488 GT3 courtesy of Octane126 in the SPX class and the 458 Italia GT3 fielded by Hella Pagid – racing one in SP8 class. After having won virtually all the races in 2018, Christian Kohlhaas and Stephan Köhler, flanked by various other drivers over the course of the year, produced a formidable spell in the latter half of the season, even though the four consecutive wins clinched proved to be insufficient to repeat the title, which escaped them by a mere 4.59 points. The 2019 VLN season will thus see five class wins inscribed into the Ferrari archives. Besides the four Hella Pagid – racing one wins was the first place for the crew of Octane 126, made up of Bjorn Grossmann, Simon Trummer and Jonathan Hirschi, who triumphed in SPX class on the third calendar date.