A zero lap in a regularity test is always something special for the respective team, perhaps comparable to a "strike" in bowling or a "triple 20" in darts. After all, at a GLP the drivers have to confirm the lap time of the setting lap to the hundredth of a second in order to get a so-called zero lap, i.e. a faultless lap, credited by the timekeeping. With a lap length of 20.379 km on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, a "zero" is therefore a strong performance, but it is not enough to win on its own.    

At the drivers' briefing of the GLP "Rhein-Sieg" on Saturday morning, driving director Jürgen Seidel again explained the task in detail, because some teams had not adhered to the rules at the last event and therefore had to be taken out of the classification. Then followed the obligatory exchange with the head of track safety Franz Mönch, who had previously driven the Eifel race track: in some places the track was still "soaking wet", but it would dry up. Punctually and well briefed, the race director then sent the 102 GLP teams into the Green Hell.

Already in the first confirmation lap Karin and Winfried Schlüter set their mark. With a zero lap, the couple from Horstmar in the red Mini JCW took the lead in the round table. They were followed on P2 by the rookies (!) Stefan Jacobs (Aachen) and Justin Schumacher (Hennef) in the Ford Puma with 0.3 points. Third place was shared at this point by Oliver and Udo von Fragstein (Leichlingen/Leverkusen), also with a Ford Puma, and Jutta Steinbrück-Weiß and Dirk Weiß (Usingen) in an Audi S6 plus with 0.4 points each.

Then Oliver and Udo von Fragstein countered. They finished the second confirmation round with zero faults and now took the lead with a cumulative 0.4 points. With 0.1 fault points in the second round, the winners of the last GLP, Harald and Harald (Senior) Ezaru from Pforzheim, now moved up to P2 after 0.7 points in the first confirmation round, while Karin and Winfried Schlüter slipped to third place with 1.0 fault points.

During the refuelling break, the drivers confirmed Franz Mönch's forecast: at the beginning it was still wet and slippery, but now the Nordschleife was good to drive on. At this point, halfway through the race, Oliver and Udo von Fragstein (0.6 points) were leading the time table ahead of Ezaru/Ezaru (1.5 points) and Schlüter/Schlüter (1.7). 

With the improving track conditions, the mood of many GLP teams also improved. At the finish Sandra Meier and Michael Dedekind (Landshut) in the splendid looking BMW E46 M3 were in tenth place with 9.6 points (1.9/2.1/0.1/1.5/0.7/3.3). Jutta Steinbrück-Weiß and Dirk Weiß were unable to repeat their good result from the first round. 9.2 points (0.4/1.3/2.9/1.3/1.4/1.9) were enough for ninth place.  

Karin and Winfried Schlüter as well as Andrea and Rolf Derscheid (Much) in their Opel Corsa, who start for the MSC Wahlscheid in the ADAC, only missed one lap with more than four points. Derscheid/Derscheid reached eighth place with 8.5 points (0.5/4.2/0.8/0.5/0.5/2.0) Schlüter/Schlüter secured P7 with 8.0 (0.0/1.0/0.7/4.9/0.7/0.7) points.

The next two places were taken by rookie teams. With a good 7.7 points (1.9/0.7/0.6/2.0/0.7/1.8) Jessica Suitter and Sebastian Gödderz from Winkelhaid (south-east of Nuremberg) in the Renault Twingo managed sixth place. With 6,5 points (0,3/1,3/1,0/2,7/0,9/0,3) Stefan Jacobs and Justin Schumacher delivered a strong result, which was easily enough for P5.

In fourth place was again a team from MSC Wahlscheid in the ADAC. The competition knows that Tina and René Göbbels (Eschweiler) are always a force to be reckoned with in the white Golf. With only 5.5 penalty points (0.8/1.4/1.0/0.8/0.1/1.4) they once again showed their qualities. For Monika and Falk Mellentin (Mönchengladbach), the switch to the BMW 318 ti compact seems to have paid off. With 4.8 points (0.8/1.9/0.2/0.5/1.2/0.2) they finished third for the DAMC 05 in the ADAC.

And right at the front? At the last GLP, the number 2 won and the "1" came second. This time it was the other way round. Father and son Ezaru delivered a strong result with 2.6 points (0.7/0.1/0.7/0.7/0.2/0.2), but father and son von Fragstein were ahead in the end, not least because of the zero lap, and with 2.0 points (0.4/0.0/0.2/0.5/0.3/0.6) they took already the third stage win of this season.  

By the way, the following teams also managed one of the coveted zero rounds. In their third confirmation lap, Jörg Wenzel (Langenfeld) and Uwe Knipp (Essen) managed to confirm the time from the first setting lap to within a hundredth of a second. However, as the two Audi A3 drivers slightly fouled up the first round, 106.1 points (94.7/1.7/0.0/3.3/2.4/4.0) were only enough for 65th place in the end. Wolfgang Großelanghorst (Gütersloh) and Josef Bollweg (Dissen) also had minor problems in the first confirmation round. They only managed the feat "zero round" in the last confirmation round. With 56.2 points in the addition (42.4/8.5/1.7/1.0/2.6/0.0), the Peugeot 207 drivers competing for the MSC Gütersloh in the ADAC finished in 53rd place. For the SFG Schönau in the ADAC, Karl-Alois Kaster and Markus Hansen (both Nettersheim) in the Fiat Bravo achieved a good result. Their faultless second round was the basis for 19th place with 19.4 points (4.7/0.0/5.4/5.01.5/2.8).

What is going on with the rookies at the moment? The four best teams in the special ranking also placed in the top-20 of the overall ranking. Strong performance! Once again the rookie victory, this time with 6.5 points (0.3/1.3/1.0/2.7/0.9/0.3), went to Stefan Jacobs and Justin Schumacher. They took an excellent 5th place in the overall daily standings. P2 in the rookie ranking (P6 overall) was secured by Jessica Suitter and Sebastian Gödderz with 7.7 points, ahead of Nadine Philipp and Sebastian Anding from Blaufelden with 10.6 points (P11 overall). 

The "Team Null Runde" (Ezaru / Ezaru, Schlüter / Schlüter, Dedekind / Meier and Großelanghorst / Bollweg) won the team classification with 28.12 points ahead of the team from MSC Wahlscheid (Göbbels / Göbbels, Derscheid / Derscheid, Scholl / Scholl, Dahlhäuser / Steimel and Knöppel / Wildschütz) with 27.23 points.

On the whole, driving director Jürgen Seidel was satisfied after the GLP, as there were no major accidents despite the weather, but only slight slips without personal injury.