Motorsport festival at the Nürburgring: A crowd of more than 200,000 spectators, a grid of 40 sports cars including a pair of BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 and 1,500 horsepower strong race trucks of the European Truck Racing Championship will provide a motorsport festival at this weekend's Truck-Grand-Prix (13th to 15th July) at the Nürburgring. At the legendary German track, ALPINA enters it's BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 at the fourth round of the ADAC GT Masters, which will share the track with the ADAC Truck-Grand-Prix, one of Germany's biggest motorsport events. In the two races at the Nürburgring, defending champion Dino Lunardi (F) and Maxime Martin (B) have to get a good point haul, to stay in contention to the championship leaders.

The BMW ALPINA B6 GT3, the championship-winning car of the 2011 season, was among the fastest cars in the first six races of the 2012 ADAC GT Masters season. In all previous races, Lunardi / Martin fought for the podium, but had bad luck recently and didn't score points at the most recent round at the Sachsenring after two punctures.

The Nürburgring will make a point haul for ALPINA not easy. ALPINA scored already victories on the long Grand-Prix-Track version of the "Ring" with the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 in the past due to the cars excellent aerodynamics and powerful engine. But this weekend, the short "sprint course" will be used, which is much different from the long track due to the lack of fast and flowing corners. In it's only former outing at the short track so far during the 2011 season, ALPINA didn't manage to score points on the shortest track of the ADAC GT Masters season, as the BMW ALPINA couldn't play its advantages there.

Furthermore, ALPINA has to start with an additional handicap. Although the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 didn't score any points in the three previous races, the organisers increased the weight of the B6 GT3 by 30 kg. Since the previous event at the Sachsenring, the BMW ALPINA drivers have also to cope with reduced power as the diameter of the air restrictor was reduced by 14%.

ALPINA's Andreas Bovensiepen expects a difficult weekend. "The track is clearly the most difficult for us all season and with the burden of increased weight and reduced power, we may be lucky, if we manage to get into the points ranks."

"The primary goal at the Nürburgring for us is to avoid mistakes and finish both races in the top-ten," Maxime Martin says. "After the experience, ALPINA made last season at the sprint track of the Nürburgring, it will be a be a hard weekend for us. We need to score some points because otherwise, the second half of the season will be very difficult in terms of the championship."

A second BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 is entered at the Nürburgring round by ALPINA customer team LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler for Florian Spengler and Johannes Leidinger.

The two races from the Nürburgring are broadcasted live in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by kabel eins Saturday and Sunday at 12:15 hours. The pan-European motorsport channel with show both rounds of the ADAC GT Masters from the Sachsenring on Juli 18th at 21:00 hours with several repetitions the following days.

Source: Team