Remo Lips (Callaway Competition) clinched the last Gentlemen class victory of the 2014 season at the ADAC GT Masters finale in Hockenheim. At the wheel of his Corvette Z06.R, the Swiss driver, supported by ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Lennart Marioneck, took the win from Porsche drivers Herbert Handlos/Alfred Renauer (TONINO Team Herberth) and Anton Wossos/Nathan Wolf (GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport) in a dramatic final stint.
Corvette driver Toni Seiler (Callaway Competition) looked a certain winner for quite a long time. Seiler's team-mate Andreas Simonsen led the class in the first half of the race and handed over the Corvette to Seiler in second place overall. The Swiss veteran defended the lead in the second stint until he spun off track while scrapping for second place overall with Claudia Hürtgen in the Motodrom. Lips inherited the lead in class and drove to his third win of the season. And yet, the race had got off to an action-packed start for the Swiss driver and team-mate Marioneck. Marioneck was put into a spin at the start in the first turn and was left chasing after the field. In the final stages of the race, Lips then benefited from a broken drive-shaft on the Porsche 911 of Dominic Jöst/Florian Scholze (TONINO Team Herberth) and the slide off track by his team-mate, Seiler. After the second safety car period, Lips took the lead in class from newly crowned Gentlemen champion Handlos and made victory certain. Anton Wossos and Wolf Nathan completed the podium party in third place.
Lips told us after the finale: "Today's race was full of ups and downs, with a spin at the start and a stop-and-go penalty, some decent overtaking manoeuvres and two safety car periods during which we were able to catch up. It's nice to finish the season with a win in the end, and I'm delighted that we managed to secure our first Top-Ten finish."
Handlos: "Racing today was a mixed affair. I made a small mistake and drove a little too fast in the pit lane. We were handed a penalty for that and lost position, but ultimately, we had no chance against the Corvette."
TONINO Team Herberth celebrated a hat-trick in the overall standings of the Gentlemen category. Dominic Jöst finished runner-up behind 2014 Gentlemen champion Herbert Handlos, who secured the title in the penultimate race of the season on Saturday, and Florian Scholze ended his first season in the ADAC GT Masters in third place.