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Every January, you’d normally find Klaus Abbelen playing music in bars and clubs throughout the Eifel region of Germany, as a way of getting through the cold winter days of the racing off-season.

Instead, this year, the 55-year-old butcher is fulfilling a dream by competing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and taking his Frikadelli Racing team with him for what could end up being a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I’ve been making music for 30 years now and I said this year I want to go [to Daytona],” Abbelen told Sportscar365. “I’m old enough now and only getting older to do it. I wanted to do it here and see how the racing is in America.”

Abbelen and longtime girlfriend Sabine Schmitz, known as the “Queen of the ‘Ring” and soon-to-be Top Gear personality, are partners in the Frikadelli team, which translates to “meatball” – Abbelen’s nickname in the meat industry.

Audi GT factory driver Frank Stippler, four-time Porsche Supercup champion Patrick Huisman and Porsche Junior driver Sven Mueller will join Abbelen at Schmitz at the wheel of the team’s brand-new Porsche 911 GT3 R, which will be among the expected 22 entries in GT Daytona.

And having posted the fifth quickest time in class at the Roar Before the Rolex 24, and second best among the new Porsches, Frikadelli heads into the twice-around-the-clock endurance classic as a darkhorse pick.

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