BASF Coatings at the world’s toughest car racing event – great success with three cars on the racetrack		05/26/2008

And Baby makes three . . .

Münster. At the world’s toughest car racing event, the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring racetrack, BASF Coatings had three irons in the fire. Three teams competed in a coat of Glasurit paint from Münster and were supported by BASF Coatings. Therefore, it was only natural for the BASF Coatings employees involved in the various projects to be as excited as “their” team. The victory of the “internal BASF championship” was clinched by the surprise of the 24-hour race, the Mercedes-Benz 190 E (also called “Baby Benz” among insiders) driven by the Stadler team. Team leader Thorsten Stadler and his men came in third in their class in the overall placing of the race in “Green Hell”, as the drivers call the Nürburgring’s tricky Nordschleife (North Circuit). The racing team had decorated the car and their teamwear with oversized stickers and patches featuring R-M, one of BASF Coatings’ paint brands. Thorsten Schlatmann (R-M Germany) is pleased with the team’s success: “It’s a fantastic achievement. The hard work before the event paid off.”

The materials and teams of the two other vehicles supported by BASF Coatings didn’t fare quite so well. The BioConcept car driven by Smudo, lead singer of the German group Die Fantastischen Vier (The Fantastic Four) and the Audi racer designed and built by RWTH Aachen University were both faced with challenges; neither team managed to place among the top positions. “But both teams attracted a lot of attention from the media, as well as from the 220,000 visitors on site and the spectators watching the live broadcast on DSF TV during the race. That’s extremely important,” Schlatmann said.

From the Ideas Park directly to the race

For the BioConcept car, the run-up to the sporting event wasn’t exactly ideal. Right up to the day before the race, the car was on display at the Ideas Park in Stuttgart, where it was admired by 250,000 visitors and presented at a gala celebration by German TV stars Thomas Gottschalk and Günther Jauch. “Transitioning to the competition in the world’s toughest car racing event in a matter of a day was a real challenge for us. Unfortunately, it kept us from placing near the top,” Schlatmann continued.