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ADAC GT Masters·11.2.2015

ADAC GT Masters: News and notes in February: ADAC GT Masters drivers go endurance racing this January

- Top honour for Nicki Thiim: The Audi driver, who will line up with C Abt Racing this year in the ADAC GT Masters, was nominated for the Danish Motorsport Driver of the Year Award. His team-mate Kelvin van der Linde has likewise been nominated for the Driver of the Year Award in his native South Africa.

- René Rast, unlike Kelvin van der Linde, will not defend his ADAC GT Masters title this year. Rast has been promoted by Audi to the LMP1 programme in the Audi R18 e-tron quattro and will contest the 24-Hours of Le Mans. "My programme with Audi at Le Mans takes priority and will require lots of preparation, so there's no time for a full season competing in a GT series," said Rast.

- Apart from ADAC GT Masters champion Rast, another former ADAC GT Masters driver has made the move up into the top echelons of sports car racing. Nick Tandy won four races and finished seventh in the 2012 season. He will line up at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a hybrid Porsche 919 along with Formula 1 driver Nico Hülkenberg and Earl Bamber from New Zealand.

- Dominik Farnbacher is probably the fastest team boss in the ADAC GT Masters. Farnbacher, who last year acted as team principal for the family outfit of Farnbacher Racing, took a Dodge Viper GT3 R to a GTD class win at the 24-Hours of Daytona in the USA. This was Farnbacher's second class win at the 24-hour classic in Florida. The first ADAC GT Masters champion and the current title-holder, Christopher Haase and René Rast, drove to fifth place in class together in an Audi R8. Porsche drivers Christian Engelhart and Mario Farnbacher were unlucky when their 911 retired with technical problems.

- Farnbacher is not the only winner of a 24-hour race to compete in the ADAC GT Masters. Maro Engel won a 24-hour kart race in Cologne towards the end of January, competing in a team that also included DTM champion Bernd Schneider, BMW works driver Dirk Müller and Christopher Brück. Maxi Buhk, Fabian Hamprecht and Luca Stolz were also out on the kart track endurance racing in January at the 24-Hours of Limburg.

- 2008 ADAC GT Masters champion Tim Bergmeister was also a regular visitor to the kart track, following the progress of son Jakob. The nine-year-old is preparing to take the successful racing tradition of the Bergmeister family into the next generation. Jakob Bergmeister has already been given his first works contract in karting and will compete in the ADAC Kart Masters this year.

- ROWE Racing, Schütz Motorsport and Schubert Motorsport basked in considerably warmer temperatures than at home during January and February. ROWE Racing tested a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 this January at Sebring in Florida, preparing for the ADAC Zurich 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. Schubert Motorsport headed off to Spain in early February. The BMW team were testing in Barcelona. Schütz Motorsport was also busy with training on the racetrack in Spain during February.

- Bentley works driver Maximilian Buhk contested his first race in the Bentley Continental GT3 in Australia. Buhk posted the fastest lap time for a Bentley driver at the 12-Hours of Bathurst but was unlucky when forced to retire with a technical defect in the last hour of the race. Markus Winkelhock was second in an Audi R8 MS ultra fielded by Phoenix Racing. Nathan Morcom, the first Australian to race in the ADAC GT Masters, was also in the line-up for his home fixture, driving a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

- A trip to Australia is also in prospect for Tomas Enge. Enge will drive a Chevrolet Camaro GT3 at the season opener of the Australian GT Championship towards the end of February in Adelaide. There, the Czech driver will come across former ADAC GT Masters championship runner-up Christopher Mies, who will be contesting the full season in Australia for an Audi team.

- Reiter Engineering has expanded its test and development driver line-up. Reiter builds and develops the Sareni Camaro GT3, the Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX, and also a new GT sports car for KTM. The outfit has now engaged Nick Catsburg from the Netherlands, who now joins Albert von Thurn und Taxis, Peter Kox and Tomas Enge.