Immediately after the Saturday and Sunday ADAC GT Masters races, a spectacular drift show was staged in front of the Motodrom grandstands.

Sporting magnanimity: Maximilian Buhk was one of the first to congratulate new champion Daniel Keilwitz after Diego Alessi safely steered the Corvette across the finish line to secure the title.

Causing quite a stir in the paddock were a powerboat outside the Tonino by Herberth Motorsport garage and a bright red Corvette C7 Stingray brought along for the occasion by Callaway Competition.

Former Argo Racing Team principal Herbert Lambert and ex-ADAC GT Masters stars Otto Klohs, Jens Richter and Alex Müller paid a flying visit to Hockenheim for the climax of the season.

SARENI United team captain Tomas Enge didn't get much sleep over the weekend. The Chevrolet Camaro outfit gave Saturday's race a miss so that they could perform a full inspection of their engine which had been over-revved in a test on Wednesday. On Friday night, Enge transported the Camaro V8 engine from Hockenheim to team headquarters in Bavaria where repair work was carried out throughout Saturday. The engine was then returned to the track overnight in time for Sunday's race. "It just so happens that Tomas was the driver who took the engine into the red zone," said SARENI team boss Hans Reiter with a wry smile.

kabel eins TV commentator Patrick Simon turned up at the track driving a Porsche 911 in rally trim; he intends to enter November's Cologne-Ahrweiler rally with Nürburgring Endurance Cup (VLN) track commentator Olli Martini as his co-driver. "This thing is so loud, I had to drive with earplugs," said Simon with a wicked grin.

Simon was also the official compère for the championship gala on Sunday evening, held in the Greschbachhalle inside the Hockenheim paddock. ADAC Sports President Hermann Tomczyk, ADAC scrutineer Jürgen Fabry and representatives of ADAC GT Masters partner organisations BASE, YOKOHAMA and SCHÖNER WOHNEN Polarweiss handed cheques and trophies to the winning teams and drivers. Following the awards ceremony, contestants and crews celebrated well into the early hours.

The Renauer brothers, Alfred and Robert, had a stressful run-in to the last race: "We not only had to prepare cars for the ADAC GT Masters but also for the Porsche Carrera Cup at Zandvoort. Before setting off for Hockenheim, we had no fewer than six Porsches to load."

Polarweiss Racing team boss Norbert Brückner was watching Sunday's race on TV when Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Götz's season came to such a disappointing end with the retirement of their Mercedes-Benz. This was because he had had to fly out to northern Spain to oversee Sergey Afanasiev and Andreas Simonsen who were competing in an FIA GT race at Pamplona in another of his gullwing cars. Brückner was back at Hockenheim in time for the Sunday evening close of season party.