After the most important race of the year, the Porsche Carrera World Cup with more than 100 participating 911 GT3 cup cars from different one-make-cups at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, tolimit motorsport takes the lead in all championship with its drivers Sean Edwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi finishing on places 4, 7 and 62 respectively. Changing weather conditions with a lot of rain and the high density of participants turned the race on the 25.378 track into a challenge for teams and drivers.

According to the regulations, the team started under the flags of ‘Team Abu Dhabi by tolimit’ and represented the partners from both one-make cups Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Deutsche Post, aabar, Windreich and SR Technics. Qualifying, however, did not run according to plan.

Sean Edwards: “It was a tough qualifying with so much traffic and so many yellow flags. It was not so much about speed, but about getting a clear lap, which I hardly managed.” In the end, the Brit started from position 7.

Jeroen Bleekemolen, who’s 911 GT3 Cup represented the colours of Deutsche Post, made the same experience: “I am very disappointed about the qualifying. I was not able to drive one clear lap. When you put so many drivers with different skill levels together onto the Nordschleife, a lot is to happen for sure. And that messed up all my fast laps.”

Khaled Al Qubaisi, who as always represented his home country of Abu Dhabi on his car, experienced some difficulties with the steering in qualifying: “Something was wrong, but we sorted it out for the race. Other than that I am of course suffering a bit from the changing weather. The Nordschleife is a really challenging track.” The business man from Abu Dhabi started from position 82.

On time for the race start on Saturday, the weather became typical for the Eifel region: it was raining heavily. Sean Edwards had a good start and managed to catch up to position 4. The rain specialist then benefited from the crash of his biggest competitor Nick Tandy, however, had to give way to a harsh manoeuvre from Nordschleife specialist Lance Arnold. While the track dried down again, he finished the race on position 4. For the championship, however, he will get the points for position 3, as Arnold is a guest starter. So Edwards takes over the lead in the driver standings in Carrera Cup as well as in Supercup.

Sean Edwards: “A great, but also a difficult race. I could hardly see anything in the first two laps and realised that one mistake here would end in a huge crash. Tandy took a lot of risk and finally crashed into the barriers. After that I just wanted to finish the race. I knew that I would take over the lead in both championships. A huge thanks to the team for a great job, as always.”

Team mate Jeroen Bleekemolen made his way up to the front, too. The Dutch racer faced a double challenge on this weekend due to his start in the 24 hour race. After his constant fight for positions, he benefited from the drop outs of Huisman and Giermaziak in the second lap as well as of Thiim in the third lap and finished the race on position 7. Due to the guest starters in front of him, he collects the points for position 5.

Jeroen Bleekemolen: “It was quite a good race. I was very careful at the beginning, because I couldn’t see anything. After two laps it cleared up, but I had already lost some time to the frontrunners. The speed was there, however and I would have needed one more Grand Prix track lap in order to catch two more competitors. 7th place is ok compared to where I started from on the grid.”

Khaled Al Qubaisi probably had to solve the most difficult issue in the race. The tight starting grid and the different skill level of the participants resulted in him constantly facing yellow flags and overtaking manoeuvres. Nevertheless, he competently took the challenge and moved from starting position 82 to a great 62nd place. For the driver championship in Supercup, he therefore collects his first two points of the season.

Khaled Al Qubaisi: “I managed to stay out of trouble in the race and kept on improving step after step. It’s great to collect my first two championship points in the Supercup here on the Nordschleife. After a mixed start into the weekend, this is a satisfying finish.”

tolimit head of motorsport Michael Seifert: “It was an extreme weekend that turned all legalities for one-make-cups upside down. It was more an endurance than a sprint race. Nevertheless, we took the challenge and finished as the best team of the championships. With the points collected, we take over the lead in both the Supercup and the Carrera Cup. For me personally, the result in this important race is a great relief. Team and drivers gave their best. Thanks for the performance. It makes me really proud.”

tolimit managing director Hans-Bernd Kamps: “Team and drivers did a great job this weekend. Despite of all adversities such as weather and traffic, we jointly showed a great performance. Sean now leads the driver standings of both championships and Jeroen is the runner-up in Carrera Cup. We can’t complain and keep on working to win the title.”

Photos and results will be posted on www.facebook.com/tolimit during the race weekend. For more news about the team, please visit www.tolimit-motorsport.de

The race dates in Porsche Carrera Cup:
July 3, DTM Norisring, Germany
August 7, DTM Nürburgring, Germany
September 18, DTM Oschersleben, Germany
October 23, DTM Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, Germany

The race dates in Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup:
July 10, Silverstone, Great Britain
July 24, Nürburgring, Germany
July 31, Budapest, Hungary
August 28, Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
September 11, Monza, Italy