Qualifying: Kelleners' comeback pole

The former works Porsche and Toyota Le Mans driver splashed his way around the wet Eifel track aboard the Konrad Motorsport team's Lola-Ford and set no less than three laps that were good enough for pole. His eventual 1m44.435s best time, set on the final tour of the half-hour session, put him fully 0.66s clear of Werner Lupberger's Judd-powered Ascari.

"I really don't like the rain, but this car was just right for it," said Kelleners, who competed in the first two rounds of the FIA SCC in the Kremer team's Lola earlier this year.

"Having a V8 engine rather than a V10 means we have a lot of torque and smooth power delivery, which is just what you want when it is wet," he added. "But I knew it had been close, so I kept pushing right until the end."

The first part of the session had been close, with Kelleners trading the top position with Lupberger, Jean-Christophe Boullion's Pescarolo Courage and youngster Val Hillebrand in the Jan Lammers-run Dome-Judd, before he got down into the 1m44s zone. After that, no one had a reply.

The cause of the Konrad team, which is making its first start in the series since running their B2K/10 in the corresponding Nurburgring race last year, was helped when Boullion spun into the gravel on his last-minute all-out effort. The Frenchman ended up in fourth just behind the impressive Hillebrand.

The Kremer team's older Lola B98 ended up fifth in the hands of Jean-Marc Gounon, despite having had no running in practice to gain a set-up after altenator problems. Paired with rising English star Sam Hancock, the duo will be one to keep an eye on in the two and a half hour race on Sunday.

Championship leader Marco Zadra's BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 333SP was only put on the outside of the third row by Christian Pescatori. But their concern was limited as Zadra's closest title rivals, the Den Bla Avis Dome-Judd duo of John Nielsen and Hiroki Katoh only managed eighth after the Dane was hit by a mystery problem.

"I don't know what happened, but the car was trying to swap ends on the straight," shrugged Nielsen. "It was so dangerous. We've got to work hard tonight to try and find the problem."

Another potential front-runner out of contention was Giovanni Lavaggi's Judd-powered Ferrari 333SP, shared this weekend with historic racing ace Bob Berridge, which suffered an alternator failure at the start of the session and failed to post a time.

In the SRII class there was a British success story as Ian Flux mastered the wet conditions in the Mike Millard Rapier-Nissan to grab pole from championship front-runners Martin O'Connell and Thed Bjork.

"After some of the problems we've had this year this is a fantastic result, and gives all the boys a lift," smiled Flux.



1 Ralf Kelleners (D)/Franz Konrad (A), Konrad Lola-Ford B2K/10, 1m44.435s
2 Werner Lupberger (ZA)/Ben Collins (GB), Team Ascari Ascari-Judd A410, 1m45.100s
3 Val Hillebrand (B)/Jan Lammers (NL), Racing for Holland Dome-Judd S101, 1m45.488s
4 'Jules' Boullion (F)/Boris Derichebourg (F), Pescarolo Courage-Peugeot C60, 1m45.609s
5 Jean-Marc Gounon (F)/Sam Hancock (GB), Kremer Lola-Ford B98/K2001, 1m46.005s
6 Christian Pescatori (I)/Marco Zadra (I), Scuderia Italia Ferrari 333SP, 1m47.094s
7 Alex Caffi (I)/Mauro Baldi (I), R&M Riley & Scott-Judd MkIII, 1m47.171s
8 John Nielsen (DK)/Hiroki Katoh (J), Den Bla Avis Dome-Judd S101, 1m47.512s
9 Enzo Calderari (CH)/Lilian Bryner (CH)/Angelo Zadra (I), Scuderia Italia Ferrari 333SP, 1m48.870s
10 Mark Smithson (GB)/Peter Owen (GB), Redman Bright Reynard-Judd 01Q, 1m58.309s


1 Ian Flux (GB)/Mike Millard (GB), Sovereign Rapier-Nissan 6, 1m54.856s
2 Thed Bjork (SWE)/Larry Oberto (USA), Team Sweden Lola-Nissan B2K/40, 1m55.337s
3 Martin O'Connell (GB)/Warren Carway (IRL), Rowan Pilbeam-Nissan MP84, 1m55.629s
* First named driver set time