Last Saturday, German Volvo specialist Heico Sportiv celebrated the first win for a bio-ethanol powered racecar at the six-hour ADAC-Ruhr-Pokal Nrburgring. Patrick Brenndrfer and Martin Mller drove the Heico HS4 Odin based Volvo S40 to first position in the "SP11alternative fuels class over two liter capacity".
More than 46000 spectators watched the seventh running of the endurance race around the Nrburgring. After 230 teams have practiced in the morning, the maximum of 210 were allowed to race. Heico had finished in the 24hr Nrburgring endurance race in June '07, so now the goal was to become the first class winner with bio-ethanol in a class dominated by powerful turbo-diesel cars.
During practice, the Toyo-tired Volvo ran 9:41.960min laptimes on the 24.358km (15.14 miles) combination of the Nrburgring's Sprintcourse plus Nordschleife. The 350hp Volvo ensured third position behind two BMWs (135d and 335d) in the SP11 class.
The start was at 12pm and the S40 followed the BMW 335d like a shadow. During the six-hour race, the HS4 Odin was absolute reliability and put in consitent lap times. Just tires and drivers had to be changed on schedule, as well as refueling with BioFormula85 from Brggemann Alcohol.
After the BMW 135d broke down, the Volvo caught the leading BMW 335d to take the lead shortly before 6pm. And the Heico Sportiv team from Weiterstadt, Germany became the first winners with bio-ethanol in the class for alternative fuels. In the overall standings - the car finished 35th in a field of 210 cars.heicosportiv.de