Photo: ADAC Procar Series

Peter Rikli ends Jens Weimann’s winning streak

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Swiss-driver Peter Rikli’s return to the ADAC Procar Series this weekend at the Nürburgring saw an end to Thate Motorsport’s Jens Weimann’s season long winning streak, which was at six poles and 12 race wins heading into this weekend.

The strength of ADAC Procar Series Division 1 field was dramatically improved for the Nürburgring round of the championship, with Thate Motorsport adding last year’s champion Johannes Leidinger to the their line-up in a second BMW 320si, whilst Peter Rikli also made a return to the championship, having been absent so far this year focussing on the FIA European Touring Car Cup where he was an outside contender for the title.

Thate BMW-driver Jens Weimann maintained his unbeaten pole position run, taking pole with a time just under half a second faster than Peter Rikli’s Honda Civic, whilst Paul Green was third fastest in the Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si ahead of Markus Huggler’s older BMW 320i with Johannes Leidinger fifth on the grid.

In the first race, Rikli and Weimann duelled for the lead, with P1 changing hands a few times, but Rikli came out on top after a mechanical gremlin saw Weimann lose time late in the race and fall behind his new team-mate Johannes Leidinger, with Weimann’s victory run coming to an end.

The problem wasn’t resolved before race two, and so Weimann was forced to miss the second race, which was won by 2011 champion Johannes Leidinger with a winning margin of 28 seconds over Engstler Motorsport’s Paul Green with Peter Rikli in third after serving a drive-through penalty for a jump start.

In Division 2, Andreas Rinke made his first ADAC Procar Series appearance in a privately entered Citroën Saxo and took pole position ahead of points leader Guido Thierfelder’s Peugeot 207. However, Thierfelder took both race victories and in doing so, secured the 2012 Divison 2 drivers’ title. Ralf Glatzel’s Ford Fiesta finished second in race one and third in race two, with Maurer Motorsport’s Wilson Borgnino third then second in the Chevrolet Aveo.

The 2012 ADAC Procar Series ends in two weeks’ time at the Hockenheimring.