Sebastian Asch can hardly wait for the ADAC GT Masters to kick off in barely two months time with the season opener at Oschersleben: "No firm decision has been taken as yet about which team I will be competing with, but it goes without saying, I aim to defend my title, no matter what." Asch, together with 2012 ADAC GT Masters champion Maximilian Götz, has 60 ADAC GT Masters races to his name so far, which makes him one of five drivers, who have contested the greatest number of events in the series. The son of touring car legend Roland Asch has been an ADAC GT Masters competitor since 2008. Asch won three races last season. Before tackling the matter of his title defence, which commences with the start of the season towards the end of April, he talks about the highlights of his 60 races to date.

"I drove a Lamborghini Gallardo with Frank Schmickler and Argo Racing during my first season in 2008. Team manager Günther Lambert, who sadly passed away the following year, was the one who gave me the chance to move up from the Seat Cup to the Lamborghini. That season with Schmicki was great fun. We always did quite well. Never enough to secure a win, unfortunately, but we achieved three podium finishes. I clinched pole position at the Sachsenring, and that, together with what had been up until then my only appearance in the ADAC GT Masters at the Norisring that year, was the absolute highlight of my season." Asch ended his ADAC GT Masters debut year in fourth place in the championship standings.

The following season, Asch planned to drive a Callaway Competition Corvette but ultimately chose to contest the Porsche Carrera Cup instead. Asch finished the season in seventh position: "I would not have missed that experience for the world, plus, I had my first contact with Porsche, which turned out to be tremendously important for me."

The 26-year-old reaped the rewards that following year. In 2010 and 2011, Asch raced a Porsche 911 GT3 R prepared by a-workx/Wieth Racing. "I had a great time. I really enjoyed driving for Niko Wieth. What a fantastic team! 2010 got off to a cracking start - a win in the first race at Oschersleben with Niclas Kentenich. But then we had some bad luck and things did not go quite as well as the season drew to a close. The reverse happened the following year. Me and Michael Ammermüller were very strong towards the end of the year but still kept having bits of bad luck. The gearbox let us down at the Red Bull Ring while I was in the lead, and I made contact with Peter Kox at the finale in Hockenheim when in second place. But then we secured a win at the Lausitzring. My dad contested a few races in an a-workx sister car towards the end of the 2011 season. Driving in the same team as him was really great and that, plus the two victories, represents a highlight from my two years with Porsche."

Asch transferred from Porsche to Mercedes-Benz shortly before the start of the 2012 season: "The move to MS RACING and an SLS AMG GT3 became a certainty just three weeks before the season opener. Switching from Porsche to Mercedes was worth it, as the title win goes to show. It all went like clockwork last season. I'd previously had my share of bad luck, but fortune really smiled on me last year. We did not have one single retirement caused by a technical malfunction and never had any problems with the car. Everything went like a dream. The ADAC GT Masters is a team sport. Everything has to be dead right if you want to succeed. Team, team-mate, car, pit stop, each individual team member must do his job perfectly, because otherwise, success is just not possible. Of course, finishing the season with a win put the icing on the cake. The whole season, team boss Harald Böttner kept telling Maxi and me to win him a Blancpain wall clock. That's what the team manager gets for a race win. Maxi and I got round to thinking that we would perhaps need to dig our hands in our pockets and buy him a clock ourselves. But then I said to myself, just a minute, we Swabians have got a reputation for being miserly to think about, so I went out there and won him his clock," says Asch, recalling his Hockenheim 'chef d'oeuvre'.

Asch has also seen how the ADAC GT Masters has progressed in the last six years: "The championship has come on in leaps and bounds since my maiden season and there's no comparison with that first year. The level of competition is incredibly high and that, together with the diversity of manufacturers competing and the TV coverage makes the series the one to be in, as far as I'm concerned."

Asch has been working hard on his studies in recent months but can now devote himself to preparations for the upcoming season. Asch tells us with a chuckle: "Studying always has to take a bit of a backseat during the racing season, and so I have to step on the gas in the winter too." But Asch did not lose contact completely with racing during the winter break: "I did an internship at Porsche Motorsport, in the department for production vehicles, mind you. I've had enquiries from various teams about defending my title, but last year will take some beating, for sure!"