Heico HS4 Odin

Tags: Heico Sportiv Heico HS4 Odin motorsport Volvo S40

After a hard struggle, HEICO SPORTIV secured a class victory in the “SP4T” class in front of nearly 200.000 visitors at the 34th ADAC 24h-race at Nürburgring.

It was the 10th attempt for the Volvo-specialist since 1995, to win the 24h classic at “the green hell”. Last Sunday, after a racing distance of 2,791km in 24:02.50 hours it was done! The blue HEICO HS4 ODIN, starting in 89th position, crossed the finish line as class winner. A real racing thriller was over for the team from Weiterstadt and the pilot trio of Patrick Brenndörfer(29, Darmstadt), Frank Eickholt (33, Bottrop) and Martin Müller (37, Griesheim).

Qualifying was quite routine. For the 25.378 km long combined circuit made up by the Nurburgring F1 circuit and the Nordschleife racing circuit, the Volvo needed 10:19.966 minutes and qualified in 92nd starting position. In a complete field of 226 sport and touring cars, we started at the end of the first of three starting groups.

During the first lap on Saturday afternoon, at “Schwalbenschwanz” corner a collision occured with a slow moving Porsche 911 GT3. “ I was driving within a group of cars, and while I was overtaking, the Porsche suddenly hit my car. The steering was damaged, so I had to go into the pit lane. Unbelievable how some people try to manage the racing distance” Brenndörfer said after the first

round. After a very quick change of the steering system, Brenndörfer was behind with 4 laps down to the field.

Until the early morning hours, with fast and consistent laps, the team was back on pace with an excellent position of 55th overall! A big reason for this was tire partner TOYO with its prototype slicks and of course all drivers. Martin Müller: “ there is a lot of junk out there on the track, just ahead of me three heavy spin-outs occurred. There is a lot of oil on the track, you have to be very careful”.

At 12:30 – exactly three and a half hours before the anticipated finish – once again we had major

excitement in pit 8. At this stage the 350hp FWD ODIN was leading its class comfortably, with a 15 lap advantage over the second place Ford Focus STR of Sebastian Asch and Stephan Wölflick. However, a damaged 4th gear forced Eickholt in for a pit stop. “It was lucky that I could control the car, because the front axle was blocked immediately”.

Felice Sgura – chief mechanic and “creator” of the HS4 ODIN – decided, to change the gear box. After unbelievable 65 minutes and an impressive team job, ODIN was back on the track and finished the final 2 laps to win the class victory.

“We are more than happy to reach this historic victory for us. My thanks to all the team, our sponsors and last but not least to all our fans along the course, who supported us” team manager Holger Hedtke said after the finish.