zero2sixty

The Champagne corks are popping at HEICO SPORTIV. In a historic triumph, it became the first ever team to capture a class victory with a bioethanol-powered vehicle at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife 24 Hour Race.
After precisely 24:06:45.623 hours, the HEICO SPORTIV Volvo C30 blazed past the finishing line as victor of the “SPT4” class at the ADAC’s 38th 24 Hour Race at the Nürburgring and in 53rd place in the overall class segment of 197 starting teams.

“We’re extremely proud and overjoyed to have scooped this first-ever victory for a bioethanol-powered vehicle,” says HEICO SPORTIV General Manager Holger Hedtke, adding “A reliable Volvo, terrific tires from Pirelli and CropEnergies’ high performance E85 fuel CropPower85 enabled us to consistently demolish the 128 laps at lightning pace.”

The ca. 25 km (15.6 mile) combination of the Nürburgring’s Grand Prix track and Nordschleife translates to a total driving distance of exactly 3,248.4 km – the distance from Volvo in Göteborg (Sweden) to Pirelli in Milan (Italy) and back again!

Reliance triumphs!

Starting from the pole position, the well rehearsed driver trio comprising HEICO SPORTIV employees Patrick Brenndörfer, Frank Eickholt and Martin Müller made a convincing show with the Volvo C30 having constant lap times and an overall ranking of around 40th place well into the early hours of the morning. A tremendous midway performance in a field brimming with GT3 sports cars and professional racing drivers. “We didn’t have any technical problems whatsoever – the car ran like clockwork,” says Technical Director Felice Sgura. “We topped up every other hour and substituted our drivers and tires according to schedule.”

Even a minor drive shaft fault as the day was dawning was unable to unnerve the well-rehearsed team. The defect was repaired in a mega-fast pit-stop, with the HEICO Volvo back on the track in an instant. Patrick Brenndörfer finally took the final lap of the circuit, flying past 220,000 frenzied spectators and scooping the HEICO SPORTIV team its second class victory since 2006 and fifth ever for the Volvo brand.

“Thanks to the innovative products of our partners Castrol, CropEnergies and Pirelli, we’re proud once again to have put Green Racing in the limelight and are already looking forward to trading barbs with prominent manufacturers, teams and drivers in the 2011 24 Hour Race,” finishes off Holger Hedtke.

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